After my failed interview in my previous Software Engineer application at Agoda, I was disappointed and tried my best to pinpoint on what could go wrong.
However, my destiny was totally changed when a few days later. After I have received that rejection email, another recruiter called me back again and I was offered to give another one last chance into another division and was asked if I am interested to reprocess my application. By reprocess, I need to start over from zero again from the start.
After some discussion on phone, I received an assessment on HackerRank in my email that I had to finish in 90 minutes. It had three questions, ranging from easy to hard LeetCode problems. I managed to solve two of them. The last one was a bit tricky, but I got the logic down, so they gave me a pass.
After I have completed the assessment, the team called me again and scheduled an on-site interview with two additional rounds: coding and platform interview. Make sure to bring your laptop to the office as they don’t provide one. Keep checking your email after confirmation for any changes, as the interview agenda has been changed quite frequent during my round. You’ll know the interview results right away on the interview day.
On interview day, the team introduces you to their key team members. They will set up a real-time HackerRank platform for you to start solving questions. In my opinion, the questions are challenging but it can be easily solved if you don’t over-engineer the solutions. I have saw some people failed this round too, so don’t neglect. Practice LeetCode to solve problems quickly, as it’s important for passing this round.
After the coding interview, I’m escorted to another room for the platform round. The interview lasted 45 minutes, focusing on technical knowledge related to my previous work experiences and projects. If you have a good understanding of web development, you’ll likely be fine. I asked my interviewer about their expectations, and they have told me that they don’t expect a perfect answer from an entry or mid-level software engineer. They only want you to get the core concepts correct. I recommend learning about technical knowledge related to your favorite stacks to pass this round. If you’ve included some tech stacks that you never used in your resume, this round may eliminate you from the shortlist.
After the platform interview, I was released to a lunch break. I grabbed a quick lunch at CentralWorld and waited impatiently for 30-45 minutes. Suddenly, I received a phone call informing me that I had passed both rounds and qualified for the cultural fit round. I was in tears after all of this, as I had overcome a lot of challenges during job hunting and this was a glimpse of it. I met the recruiter at the pickup point to be escorted to the manager for the offer, which I accepted eagerly without any second thoughts. Be really honest with you, I still felt like everything was a dream up until now that I have made it this far. Words cannot express how happy I am to finally be able to join this company after fighting and working hard for a total of 1.5 years since I was still studying in my university.
In the cultural fit, it was mostly discussing about yourself and the offer. The manager will give you some tiny bit details and stuffs related to your offer, so unless you do anything inappropriate in front of the manager I don’t really think anyone would fail this round.
To all the future candidates or someone who’s still hesitant about applying to Agoda as a Software Engineer, you can do it. Just make sure that you prepare enough, get enough sleep before the interview day, stay hydrated, take care of yourself, and don’t overlook on the easiest or tiniest bits that you may have forget about. Even if you can’t make it this time, there are still chances at some point. Remember not to give up on practicing. Trust me, the end results of all your hard working will be a fruitful one, and you will never forget about the day that you have make it after all the things you have been through.