I went through a four-step loop that started with an easy, friendly conversation with a talent partner. After that, I did a take-home assignment at home that took about four hours and was framed as a real company problem. The assignment felt grounded in practical work, and I had to be ready to explain it clearly rather than just code it up.
Next, I met with two technical people from different teams to discuss my assignment. That session included questions about my solution and also other technical topics, so it wasn’t only a replay of the take-home. Finally, I spoke with two managers. The goal there felt more about how I could communicate and adapt across different audiences, since I was asked technical questions with the intent of seeing how I’d explain things to both technical and non-technical people.
> 1 year
Average Neutral Tokyo
I interviewed with Kraken for a backend-focused role in Tokyo, and the process felt professional throughout even though I ended up rejected. It started with an HR round where they asked about my motivation for changing jobs and also tested my basic Japanese conversation skills. Japanese wasn’t required for the role, but it was treated as a nice-to-have.
A second round followed with two engineers. There wasn’t any coding test there—just discussion about my technical stack and experience, which felt like it was mainly checking cultural fit. After that, I received a take-home assignment to implement a Python script under Django to parse CSV data. I spent a couple hours on it, and then I moved into a third interview where I had to discuss my implementation and reasoning. I hadn’t been told that this round would be so focused on questions about the solution, so I was surprised by the depth.
> 1 year
Average Positive United Kingdom
My experience with Kraken’s process centered heavily on a take-home that actually felt connected to day-to-day engineering. The HR step was quick, and…
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