REA Group Interview Questions

Application

The process took 4+ weeks. I interviewed at REA Group (Richmond, VA (US)).

Interview

Great feedback throughout the process, fair and balanced approach. Was made to feel really comfortable and welcomed. I had to have two interviews and compete psychometric testing as well. Each interview went for about an hour. I was also able to ask questions.

Interview Questions

Negotiation

I was happy with the salary offered and did not negotiate further

Application

I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at REA Group (Melbourne) in March 2012.

Interview

First phone interview and it was all behavioural questions. Second was Skype interview, got ready and dressed up but it turns out the interviewer does not want the camera on. The interviewer was very unprofessional, used the word 'stupid' in giving feedback, arrogant.. I was surprised that he let me proceed to the next step of the process. Was very hesitant to go to the assessment centre after that skype interview but went anyway. The assessment centre was actually good, it was well structured and the staff was nice.

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Application

I applied online. The process took 2+ weeks. I interviewed at REA Group (Melbourne) in September 2014.

Interview

Three stages : coding exercise, coffee catch up, on site interviews. There are three interviews on site, each is one hour : pairing exercise, technical interview and cultural interview. This is all done fairly and people are friendly.

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Application

I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at REA Group.

Interview

I got contacted by a recruiter who said they were considering non Ruby devs as they had exhausted the pool of Ruby devs in Melbourne. So they gave me a coding task to complete in order to get an interview. You have to build a robot that responds to commands such as move, turn etc. The brief also said to ensure you use OO, TDD etc. So being a .net dev who'd never done any Ruby dev aside from a little tinkering this was going to be a challenge. I spent the next few days doing Ruby tutorials and then did the coding task taking a solid week (outside of work hours) to complete it. The one thing I focussed the most on was TDD. Being a strong advocate of TDD (and assuming they are too) I wanted to perform best in this area. I got my head around RSpec and properly test drove all the behaviour. It did everything the brief said it should and the specs I wrote proved that it did.

After 6 weeks this is the feedback I got:

"The feedback is mostly based on the fact the implementation itself has a lot to be desired - the OO modelling isn’t ideal, with a lot of key strokes spent on defining the grid (coordinates) and the direction turning. The use of Null pattern is good, but the “Shared” module naming is too vague and doesn’t help with code clarity”

To me it sounds like they are just wasting people's time. Expecting devs with no experience in ruby to achieve an incredibly high level in a matter of weeks?? Certainly it gave me the feedback I needed to know to make the decision that I don't want to work there. Perhaps they didn't know the context that I learnt Ruby and completed the task in a week. Based on how long it took them to get back to me though and the flippant nature of the feedback it doesn't seem they are really that interested in hiring. Anyway the link to my github repo and the toy robot challenge is below for anyone interested.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at REA Group (Melbourne) in July 2017.

Interview

Simple and thorough. Interviewers were friendly and helpful throughout the interview and shortlisting process. I did a video interview, a cognitive test, and finally a face to face interview.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 3+ months. I interviewed at REA Group (Milan (Italy)) in March 2012.

Interview

One interview, blurred, no info on the job so they hired me but I know I am not suitable for my role.

Interview Questions

Negotiation

The talk was just about monay (not because of me): result just +5%

Application

I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at REA Group (Sydney) in November 2014.

Interview

I applied online and then I received an email stating that they are going through the applications. After the I had a call from HR asking me general questions about who I am and my work history. I then had. video call and then a face to face interview.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at REA Group (Melbourne).

Interview

Few phases of the interview process:

1) Coding Test -
Pretty easy if you're familiar with the basics of programming. You get to choose the language you want to code in. The questions are fairly straightforward. I guess this to test if you can do basic stuff.

2) Group Interview:
You play a game in an "agile" way. This tests if you could work in a team, how collaborative you are etc. If you research well enough you'll know what game you're about to play and you can learn a few tricks before hand to give you a boost.

3) Technical Interview (face-to-face):
This was with two people, a team lead and a mid level engineer. This was by far my favourite part of the interview process. Both the engineers were pretty chilled out and we kinda sat together and solved the problem. They ended up really liking me and my way of approaching a technical problem.

4) Cultural Interview (face-to-face):
STAR based questions, some questions are quite unnecessary and time-consuming. Three interviewers - I had a feeling one of them didn't like me from the start. (Also, the only part in the entire process where I felt they already had a decision in mind )

Got a reject saying with specific feedback ( which is good ) saying that the tech team liked me but the cultural team felt I wouldn't be a good fit.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 3 days. I interviewed at REA Group.

Interview

I only got the first cognitive test. Sets of games. But the system was not very good. I wasted a lot of time because of the bad performance of the system.
Then I was rejected stating that my resume is not compatible with the role.
There's no coding challenges during the whole process. I'm wondering if they're actually trying to get real software engineers

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2+ months. I interviewed at REA Group.

Interview

1. Online application (including some questions)
  - They claimed they have received thousands of applications.

2. Gamified Testing
   - Very rare to see this for a developer role.

3. Video Interview
    - You only have one chance to complete your interview. I think I performed poorly on video interview due to my nervousness, so I guess that's why I didn't proceed to the next stage.

4. Assessment Centre (I didn't get an invite)
   - They said there are 5 days for the software stream, so I assume on each day you will have around 20~30 candidates. So 100~150 candidates in total but only *9* can get an offer. Extremely competitive.

My thought:
They not hiring real software engineers. It is a joke that there is no technical assessment before the assessment centre stage. I will never consider this company in my future job search.

Interview Questions