How we hire at OAK’S LAB — the guide
By: Karol Danko
Tags: Hiring, Prague, Startup, Interview, Coding Interviews

Firstly, Congratulations! If you’re reading this it means you have been invited for an interview with OAK’S LAB. So now you’re probably asking yourself, what’s next, what are we looking for and what have you got to look forward to?

Well, we’ve got you covered, here is everything you need to know to navigate your way through the full process and be prepared for what’s next.

Initial contact

There’s a number of different ways you could have reached us, our recruiting channels, referrals, or other methods. However you got here, your application has been reviewed by our CTO or one of our senior engineers and landed you in Round 1 of our interview process!

Not a candidate yet? Send your CV to apply@oaks-lab.com

Round 1— Call & Coding interview

At OAK’S, we believe that time is the most valuable resource a person can have. That’s why we are all about saving it by effectively assessing fit and ability in our CALL & CODE interviews.

In the past, we used to ask candidates to implement a test task. Nothing complicated, maximum of 2 hours of their time. But this was 2 hours which proved to show experience with boilerplates, instead of developer quality.

Our CALL & CODE interviews take the form of a remote live coding video interview that allows flexibility for you to get to know us and for us to find out a bit more about you and how you code.

This interview has 3parts:

5 minutes about OAK’S LAB

10 minutes chat about your past, present& future, questions, etc.

20–40 minutes live coding with https://coderpad.io

We ask simple programming questions connected to development basics, we usually don’t ask questions related to any specific technology just yet (e.g. React).

Imagine you're developing a statistics system for an athletic federation. You're processing results from a race in following format:



"01|15|59, 1|47|6, 01|17|20, 1|32|34, 2|3|17"



These are 5 racers and their race time as HH|MM|SS





Your task is to parse the input, calculate maximum/minimum and average time.

You can choose any programming language supported by codepad.io but on our side…we are fans of JavaScript.

During the live coding, you’ll be expected to ask questions about implementation details, explain your thought process and write bug-free code. When or if you get stuck, it’s actually a positive to ask your interviewer rather than struggle alone.

There are a bunch of sources available on how to prepare for a coding interview, we like this one https://github.com/yangshun/tech-interview-handbook/tree/master/preparing.

Success rate: 20%

Round 2 — The on-site interview

A second congratulations getting here, the second round, this is a culture fit interview with our COO and co-founder Theo.

It will take place in our HQ in the center of Prague where you’ll get a chance to glimpse into our office, take in the atmosphere, get to know us better and for us to see if you are the right personality fit.

Our office is right in the Old Town Square

(If you’re on the other side of the planet, we’ll opt to have a video call instead)

Success rate: Around 40%

Round 3 — The TSG interview

Congratulations for the third time, you passed the first two rounds, now it’s time for the “final boss” level. You will have a video call with our Tech Steering Group, our most senior engineers that set the tech strategy at the company.

You can expect 3–5 people on the call, and maybe a familiar face depending on their availability.

With the TSG you can expect deeper technical questions based on your previous experience. Are you a React guru? Expect in-depth React questions.

Success Rate: Around 30%

Alternative A — The rejection

We shoot for the stars and for that we only work with the best of the best. People who join our team not only show us high-level coding ability but also are a great addition to our team and culture. Of course, this may mean we sometimes reject talent that may not be ready. If you were rejected in the process, ask us for feedback and you’ll be more welcome to apply again in 6–12 months.

Alternative B— The onboarding

If you passed all the rounds, then CONGRATULATIONS and welcome to the OAK’S LAB FAM. Theo will be following up with our offer. Once we agree on the terms Carry, our People Ops, will send over the contract for you to sign and we can get going with the first week of onboarding and integrating you on to a killer project.