I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Purplebricks (London, England) in Dec 2024
Interview
I was concerned by the negative Glassdoor reviews but decided to proceed with the interview anyway. I was given a take-home test, which was unusual given my level of experience. The test itself was simple, but ultimately a waste of time.
During the interview, I was quizzed by two inexperienced developers with inflated titles who seemed either threatened by my expertise or unfit to conduct interviews.
The first asked vague interaction design questions and repeatedly interrupted me, shouting, “This is wrong! Why is it wrong?" In between interruptions, I explained my design decisions were based on standard UI conventions since the brief was left open to interpretation.
He dismissed my response and refused to explain why he was asking me design rather than technical questions. His idea of a correct UI was bizarre behaviour that I have never seen in any application and had not been part of the brief. He then criticised a functioning tickbox, claiming it didn’t work. When asked to demonstrate the issue, he couldn’t and instead backtracked, framing the working tickbox as a problem.
The second interviewer seemed to try a good cop bad cop routine, claiming I was doing well with a difficult interview, but followed with a very inept and patronising critique where he tried to “educate” me on the basics of a coding library that I happened to know very well. He dismissed my expertise when I responded with the history of the library, the fundamentals underlying it and the reasoning for my approach.
I wouldn’t recommend interviewing here.
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback - It’s truly appreciated, and we understand how important your time is.
Due to the high number of applicants we kindly ask candidates to complete a technical test as part of our screening process, however we also offer candidates the option to present their portfolio as an alternative.
We are deeply sorry to hear that your interview experience left you with a negative impression of the company. That’s never the outcome we want for anyone.
We’ll take this as an opportunity to reflect on how we can improve our approach to ensure every candidate leaves feeling respected and valued, even if they aren’t the right fit for us.