I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at PlayStation (San Diego, CA) in Feb 2022
Interview
This was for a contract-to-hire position at Sony Playstation which was going to full remote.
I was not prepped by the non-Sony recruiter at all that there was going to be a coding test. It was about 1 hour long initial phone call where 30 minutes was talking and 30 minutes was a coding exercise.
The phone call was suppose to be with a director or manager of engineering but instead I got on the phone call with two guys that look like they just woke up wearing almost pajama like clothes with heavy accents + choppy audio.
Keep in mind, I currently have 9.5 years of experience.
Once the typical talking of introductions goes by for the first 30 minutes, they gave me a coding test.
I solved the coding test within 10-15 minutes. Ran the Submit and it passed all test cases.
During my problem solving, I recognized the logic and what I needed to do so I asked them if I could look up the appropriate regex to filter out part of the problem since I didnt remember the exact regex. They said ya that's fine. After doing that, I solved the rest of the test very quickly and searched another thing I had to reference at some point. (this is typical software engineering at the work place, we cant remember everything)
One of the interviewers started bugging me asking me if I knew what the regex was actually doing. I said not exactly but based on my search, it is doing what I needed and I told them that if I need to know all the details I can easily lookup how the regex was built and break it down for you. So I did that and proved it to him.
Then I started getting nit picked about how I didnt check for nulls. I wasnt sure why they did this since I passed all tests cases and most coderpad/hackerrank type problems don't require that.
Overall, the interview felt kind of weird. I eventually got a decline with no feedback or response even though I showed them I could solve and code quickly and communicate as well.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How was the token in the authentication handled in your API?
Do you think you need to check for nulls?
What does the regex mean that you just looked up?
Typically, an interviewer asks around 6–12 core technical questions, plus 3–5 behavioral questions for this role. In system-heavy roles like this, expect deep follow-ups, so total discussion often expands to 15–20 question threads rather than standalone questions.
Gauntlet of 6+ interviews. Multiple tech screenings and system designs. Poorly coordinated. Recruiter uninterested and unresponsive in general, didn't follow up on my questions and got ghosted at the end. One of the interviewers had poor communication skills and it was the most painful interview I had ever had in my career.
The interviewing process is straightforward. first resume screen, then phone screen, then one tech interview with manager, Then there's the final round panel interview with behavior questions. . . . . .