Preparing for an interview at Stackadapt requires a balanced approach. You must demonstrate strong technical automation skills while showing an active interest in the mechanics of programmatic advertising.

Domain & Analytical Judgement – You must show an understanding of digital advertising concepts. Interviewers evaluate your ability to think critically about ad quality, domain safety, and user experience. You can demonstrate this by researching programmatic terminology and showing strong analytical reasoning during case-study questions.

Technical & Automation Excellence – You need to prove you can write clean, maintainable test automation code. Interviewers will assess your familiarity with testing frameworks and your ability to design robust test suites. Show strength by explaining the architecture of frameworks you have built or maintained in the past.

Problem-Solving & Algorithmic Thinking – During technical rounds, you will face live coding challenges. Interviewers are looking at your ability to break down complex algorithmic problems, choose correct data structures, and write clean code. Focus on talking through your thought process aloud rather than coding in silence.

Collaboration & Cultural Fit – Stackadapt values friendly, proactive, and highly collaborative team members. Interviewers evaluate how you handle feedback, communicate technical issues, and work across cross-functional teams. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your behavioral answers clearly.

The interview process for a QA Engineer at Stackadapt is structured, thorough, and highly organized. Candidates frequently highlight that the recruiting team is warm, friendly, and transparent about what to expect at each stage. The end-to-end process typically takes between two to four weeks, depending on candidate availability and scheduling.

The journey begins with an initial screening call with a Talent Acquisition Specialist. This conversation focuses on your background, career goals, and general experience. The recruiter will outline the entire interview loop right away so you know exactly what steps lie ahead. Following this, you will have a one-on-one video call with a QA Manager or Hiring Manager to dive deeper into your technical experience, QA methodologies, and alignment with the team's needs.

Once you pass the initial conversations, the process transitions into technical evaluations. This involves a take-home technical assignment where you will be asked to complete a practical task—such as writing automated tests in your preferred framework or analyzing ad domains and compiling a presentation. The final stages consist of a live coding and problem-solving interview with senior engineers, followed by a final panel presentation or "Meet the Team" interview where you present your assignment and answer behavioral questions.

This visual timeline illustrates the typical path a candidate takes from the initial application to the final offer. It highlights the transition from high-level screening to deep technical execution and final presentation stages. Use this timeline to pace your preparation, ensuring you dedicate enough time to both the take-home assignment and live coding practice.

To succeed in the Stackadapt interview loop, you must understand the specific competencies being evaluated at each major stage.

Programmatic Domain & Analytical Judgment

Stackadapt is a leader in the programmatic space, and they highly value candidates who can grasp the complexities of ad-tech. During the take-home assignment and subsequent interviews, you will be evaluated on your ability to analyze domains, assess ad creatives, and understand user intent.

Be ready to go over:

• Programmatic terminology – Understanding key concepts like DSPs, SSPs, RTB, ad impressions, click-through rates (CTR), and conversion tracking.
• Ad and domain quality rating – Evaluating whether an advertisement is appropriate, secure, and matches the landing page content.
• Analytical reporting – Building a structured slide deck or spreadsheet that clearly communicates your findings and quality recommendations.

Example scenarios:

• "You are given a spreadsheet of 50 domains and their associated ad creatives. How do you categorize and rate these domains for safety and quality?"
• "Explain how a tracking pixel works and how you would verify its functionality during a live campaign launch."

Test Automation & Technical Execution

As a QA Engineer, you are expected to write automated test scripts that contribute to a stable release pipeline. This area evaluates your coding standards, your choice of tools, and your ability to build scalable automation.

Be ready to go over:

• UI and API Automation – Writing automated tests using frameworks like Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, or Appium.
• Framework design patterns – Implementing the Page Object Model, handling asynchronous elements, and managing test data.
• API testing tools – Testing RESTful APIs using Postman, RestAssured, or custom HTTP clients.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and optimizing test execution times through parallel running.

Example scenarios:

• "Write a script in your preferred language to automate the login and campaign creation flow of a web application."
• "How would you structure your automated test suite to handle dynamic elements that load at different intervals?"

Live Coding & Algorithmic Problem Solving

The technical round includes a live coding session with senior engineers. This section is split between QA-specific coding scenarios and a standard algorithmic coding challenge.

Be ready to go over:

• Data structures – Arrays, strings, hash maps, and linked lists.
• Algorithmic patterns – Two-pointer approaches, sliding windows, and basic sorting/searching algorithms.
• Code quality – Writing clean, readable code with proper variable naming and error handling.

Example scenarios:

• "Write an algorithm to detect if a string is a palindrome, ignoring non-alphanumeric characters."
• "Given a list of web elements, write a function that extracts their text attributes and filters out any duplicates."

Presentation & Behavioral Panel

The final stage often involves presenting your take-home assignment to a panel of quality analysts and managers. This is followed by a structured behavioral interview.

Be ready to go over:

• Presentation skills – Explaining your technical decisions and analytical findings clearly and confidently.
• Conflict resolution – How you handle disagreements with engineering or product partners regarding quality.
• Adaptability – How you manage changing priorities and tight release schedules.

Example scenarios:

• "Walk us through your slide deck and explain why you flagged these specific domains as high-risk."
• "Tell me about a time you had to advocate for quality when a product manager wanted to push a feature to production with known minor bugs."

The day-to-day work of a QA Engineer at Stackadapt is dynamic and highly collaborative. You are embedded within an agile product team, working alongside developers and product managers from the inception of a feature to its deployment.

Your primary responsibility is to design, implement, and execute comprehensive testing strategies. This includes writing automated test scripts for both front-end user interfaces and back-end APIs. You will also conduct exploratory manual testing to discover edge cases that automated scripts might miss.

Beyond writing tests, you will collaborate closely with adjacent teams to triage bugs, investigate production issues, and continuously improve the CI/CD pipeline. You will also participate in sprint planning, refinement, and retro meetings, ensuring that quality and testability are considered at the very beginning of the software development lifecycle.

• Test Planning & Execution – Define test strategies, write detailed test cases, and execute manual and automated tests for complex ad-tech features.
• Automation Maintenance – Build and maintain robust UI and API test automation frameworks to ensure high test coverage and fast feedback loops.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration – Work closely with Software Engineers and Product Managers to clarify requirements, identify edge cases, and resolve defects.
• Production Support – Assist in investigating, reproducing, and resolving issues reported in production environments to maintain platform stability.