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      Toptal

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      Software Engineer Interview

      30 May 2018
      Anonymous interview candidate
      No offer
      Negative experience

      Other Software Engineer interview reviews for Toptal

      Software Developer Interview

      2 Mar 2026
      Anonymous employee
      Accepted offer
      Positive experience
      Average interview
      Difficult interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Toptal

      Interview

      Terrible Interview process, emphasis on automation and filters over finding quality people. The first step is a skype interview, with someone. This person may be American, outsourced, or from some random part of the world. They ask you simple questions about what you want for next role. Basic screening questions. The second step is an automated coding task. Whilst these aren't bad per se, a lot of companies use them to filter out mass amounts of candidates. They also don't really tell you anything. The person who does well in this type of test, has only shown they are good at code puzzles. This means very little when building out a professional application. More importantly, unlike other systems, this one has no submission archive system. This means no possibility to submit code and keep working on it(Think hackerrank). So once you submit, you are done. I happened to be extremely unlucky in the codility algorithm draw, since all my questions were expert level. They required some insane tree traversals, graph theory, divide and conquer. Absolutely nothing in those questions was geared towards day to day engineering. They also don't tell you that you only need to score well on 2/3 of the questions. I mean, when I was doing Amazon, and Microsoft interviews, the questions were still hard, but looked like kindergarten questions in comparison! Whilst toptal says they hire the best 3% of developers, this is a massive lie. They simply find excuses to deny as many applicants as possible. Even if you somehow manage to pass the first 2 screen, and the project, and god knows what else they throw at you, there's virtually no guarantee they will accept you. Even assuming you do get in to the network, there is no guarantee of a job either. You are merely given the chance to enter a network to bid against other freelancers, for the possibility of applying for a contract. Of course, then they client can give you yet another test. So you're interviewing to be given the opportunity to interview again?

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Given an unsorted array, find number of unsorted chunks that can be sorted and merged to create a sorted list
      Answer question
      15

      Application

      I interviewed at Toptal

      Interview

      Tech screening and then tech interview, leetcode style questions. Then there was a take home project.. not in-person. all done remotely and online. Good interviewers, helpful, easy process and good communication

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      leetcode style questions, 3 total
      Answer question

      Software Engineer Interview

      13 Mar 2025
      Anonymous interview candidate
      No offer
      Neutral experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Toptal

      Interview

      I applied to Toptal and I'm having an interview days later. What can I prepare for now? I wanna get some details or tips from you. Please help me with your toptal screening interview experience.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      What was the last project you have worked on and what did you do in that project?
      Answer question

      Software Engineer Interview

      16 May 2024
      Anonymous interview candidate
      Georgia, AL
      Declined offer
      Positive experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Toptal (Georgia, AL)

      Interview

      4 step interview. small hr call , then technical interview with 3 easy-medium problems. third step was project and after that another call with hr. overall not hard to pass

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      solving problems with data structures
      Answer question
      1