Bending Spoons Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took a week. I interviewed at Bending Spoons in August 2018.

Interview

After applying, they contact you for a timed test to do at home. I wish the test wasn’t timed - doesn’t seem realistic to the actual work you’d be doing if you worked there. Wasn’t successful after the test

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Bending Spoons (Milan (Italy)) in July 2015.

Interview

I applied through the company website, attaching my resumé and cover letter. Then there was a first interview via Skype with one of the founders. Then a coding challenge which is quite demanding in terms of effort, where they test your ability to write good software and solve non-trivial problems. Then a problem solving phase, on their website, consisting of 8 quite tough problems, each of which took between 60 and 90 minutes to complete. And finally another technical interview with the founders.

Interview Questions

Negotiation

I *really* appreciated that they did never ask me about my current (at the time) compensation. They based their offer solely and completely on the information they gathered through the interviews with me. In fact, they made me an offer that was perfectly in line with what I believed I was worth (taking into account the cost of life in Milan/Italy, etc), and there was no need to negotiate anything. This is really rare in Italy.

Application

I applied online. The process took 2+ months. I interviewed at Bending Spoons (Milan (Italy)).

Interview

First I took a coding challenge, a small but realistic piece of software with some complexity, but not to hard to create.
After that I had one interview via Skype about general topics, but with no technical questions.
They they submitted me a series of small problems to solve, half were small coding challenges, something like the ones you can find on hackerrank or similar, the other half were questions about app monetization and marketing.
After that I've had another skype interview.
Next there was another complex coding challenge, a more advanced version of the first.
After this I had a 2 hour long interview in person at their office with questions about my goals and some questions about app monetization and data analysis.
In the end they didn't make me any offer.

Interview Questions

Interview

They wrote me on LinkedIn presenting their company in a really nice and informal way, which I liked. After that, I had a Skype call with one of the founder who explained me better what they do and what they are looking for.

Then, I started the selection process which consisted of two sets of four problems and two interviews with the founders. I really enjoyed the process, I found it fun and challenging. The only thing that I did not like was the last interview. They asked me behavioral questions by copying and pasting the questions in the Skype chat, together with a set of closed options that were really closed one to another... I mean, up to that the process was at the edge of innovation and everything was amazing and well organized, so why are you ending up asking me question in that way? I could not explain things, but I was just supposed to "choose one". I found it really old school and random. I did not like that, it made me feel really uncomfortable, which did not happen until that.

Another thing that I did not like was that at the end I did not receive an offer since "my interest were not aligned with the one of the company". I think that maybe it is true and it is a fair reason to not being chosen, but they could have get that at the beginning of the process, without taking me so far in the selection which took me a lots of time and energy.

Apart from that, I really enjoyed the process and I had fun. I suggest you to take your time during the process and to not rush things. Moreover, do not assume that if you are invited to the last step, then you will mostly get the job which, I suppose, was my mistake.

Interview Questions

Application

The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Bending Spoons (Milan (Italy)).

Interview

I was interested in the position, and after reading all the positive reviews for this company I decided to apply for a role that I seemed suited for. After a cold, copy pasted message from a recruiter, I foolishly and enthusiastically accepted to do their tests. The first was a 'logic' test of about 30 minutes. After that there was a coding challenge. This was the longest challenge I have done for any company, and had nothing to do with the role I was applying to. After more than one week of working in my free time on these long and boring tasks, I was turned down with exactly 7 words (and a huge copy pasta message) pointing to a single line oversight in a 500 line project. Dismissing the challenge and the entire application based on this is a joke. I hope other people, unlike me, will have the self respect and foresight to not waste their time with a company that:
1. Treats them like a number
2. Does not include a phone number of the recruiter in their official emails
3. Does nothing to contact or get to know the candidate personally
4. After all this, asks a candidate to invest a significant amount of time into their 'screening' challenge, where they will be discarded like a number, without any possibility to show their worth

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through other source. I interviewed at Bending Spoons.

Interview

During the selection process I was asked to find solutions for two sets of four problems, a coding challenge, then I had a video interview and a final onsite interview. The problems consisted on coding problems, where you have to provide a pseudocode implementing the strategy to return the correct solution, and math/logical problems, where you had to show the reasoning that lead you to the solution. I would say that they were thought to test problem solving skills rather than specific tech knowledge, so I would suggest not to worry if you don't remember how to implement a fibonacci heap or similar. I found them quite challenging with respect to the ones of other interviews and I also had a lot of fun. The video and the onsite interviews were more behavioral than technical based. I was a bit nervous (specially during onsite) although the atmosphere were quite relaxed and friendly.
I enjoyed the whole interview process and I appreciated that during the entire process no strict time deadline were imposed in any step, so one can try his best with no hurry.

Last but not least, I would suggest to practice on HackerRank if you are new to coding interview, just to gain some confidence on how to approach a coding problem.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through other source. The process took a week. I interviewed at Bending Spoons in February 2018.

Interview

Some points summarizing the review:

1- I didn't apply for the offer directly, they found me and reached me via Dribbble and asked me to apply.
2- They asked me to do some UI designs for some apps that took me about 8 hours to complete.
3- They rejected my application without giving me a reason about why/where I failed and requested me not to ask for feedback as they had nothing to tell me, they also sent me that last email from a 'no-reply' account.

What is my feeling about this company:

It seems they have a kind of a weird interview process, they ask too much and they give nothing in return. They must rethink about how they treat people that are spending 10 hours (including test questions) of their life in their process.

Long review:

I considered applying for the job offer UI designer as I was approached by one of the recruiters at Bending Spoons, I wasn’t in the search for a job but I thought it was a good company by looking at their website (very much focused on acquiring talent instead of customers) therefore, I saw it as an opportunity, so why not give it a chance.
I went ahead and sent my CV, portfolio and cover letter as they requested in order to start a formal application, they got back to me very quickly and asked me to complete 3 tasks, the first one took 5 hours to complete 2 different sets of designs and 4 screens, the second took 3 hours for just one design and 2 screens, the third took 2 hours and it was a test. This means I spent 10 hours in total.
One week after submitting the exercises they came back to me with a negative answer, I wasn’t successful, they said there was other applicants that performed better (fair enough). The really bad thing is that they asked me NOT to ask for personal feedback plus they sent that email from a “no-reply” email account, which I find very unpolite as I did spent many hours doing the exercises for a job offer that I was asked to apply, so I assumed they did their background check and actually liked my work.
After my experience I believe that this company do a massive talent search with a nearly automated system and ask people to complete the exercises prior to do a personal interview. So my recommendation is if you are in a similar situation and want to apply for the job, ask them first what they like about your work or even better why they think you are a potential candidate.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Bending Spoons in December 2018.

Interview

They contacted me through dribbble and basically sent to me 2 problems to solve (you will need 5h or more time to finish them).

I didn't do the test because it feels that they just want some free ideas to improve the paywall flows of their apps. I do agree with some kind of tests to prove our abilities as designers but not without a previous talk about the company or myself to understand if the both parts are on the same page.

They basically send the same email to a lot of different designers and get free consulting from them. Well done guys :)

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at Bending Spoons in April 2019.

Interview

Applied online on their website, I got a response after 8 days from their recruiter and from a "no-reply" email address telling me I passed the first CV screening, I was given links to two tests:

  - One IQ standard test which I don't know why people still believe and use.
  - Technical test containing 4-5 coding problems requiring ~6hrs knowing that I have a full time job.

There were 4 red flags:
1- I was sent online tests without even speaking to a single human.
2- Outdated IQ test that has nothing to do with my skillset or the job.
3- Requiring me to put 6hrs of my time and unpaid work just to have the privilege of interviewing, that shows their disrespect to the candidate's time.
4- I contacted them to ask few questions about the tests but they ignored me, they only responded when I politely refused to spend 6hrs.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 6 days. I interviewed at Bending Spoons (Milan (Italy)) in May 2019.

Interview

Basically you send your Resume along with a cover letter (step#1).
If you pass step#1 of selection process, you will face step #2: you will have 8 hours (!) to submit 4 tests which are definitely tailored both to the job position you applied for and to your academic/professional background (assuming that you are applying for a position that fits your skills and expertise).

I was not able to go further.
Eventually you won't be "left out to dry": you will get a kind feedback from the company's HR.

Interview Questions