Candidates describe Voleon's Software Engineer interviews as coding-heavy, with hard algorithm problems, simulation-style implementation tasks, resume deep dives, and some open-ended design work.
$205K
Avg. Base Comp
$390K
Avg. Total Comp
5-7 rounds
Typical Rounds
4 weeks
Process Length
Candidates who describe Voleon's Software Engineer interviews mostly report algorithmic coding under time pressure. One candidate says nearly all of seven rounds were LeetCode-hard style, and another describes the problems as medium-hard. A third describes a phone screen with a two-part prefix-sum problem at roughly LeetCode medium level, where they started with a naive solution and optimized it with a hint from the interviewer.
Two recent reports involve simulation-style implementation. One candidate was asked to implement a class that simulates a dynamical system, with step advancement and aggregation. Another was given a balls-changing-colors problem: write a step function, then a step_k function that jumps to step k in O(n). That candidate says the difficulty was the length of the implementation and the debugging, not the algorithm. Practice writing longer, clean code and testing it quickly.
Expect your background to come up too. Candidates report a resume or project deep dive, behavioral questions about technical scope and leading projects, and a phone screen that opened with a project discussion before the coding problem. Reports of open-ended work include a two-hour design-oriented coding session and a vague prompt about building a generic problem solver. One candidate expected system design but got coding, and another was asked Kubernetes and deployment questions.
Experiences on interviewer style differ. Some candidates describe interviewers as helpful, while others say they offered little guidance and wanted an optimal answer. Narrate your reasoning anyway, and ask clarifying questions early. The evidence is limited, so treat any single report as one data point.
Synthesized from 8 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the The Voleon Group process.
This was my first technical round. The problem itself was pretty standard, but the implementation ended up being fairly long.
I was given n balls, all initially white, along with a set of marked positions. At each step, every ball at a marked position flips color, and then all positions advance by 1. I first had to write a step function and print the colors of all the balls after each step. The example looked like:
N = 5, markedPosition = [1, 3]
Step 0: wwwww
Step 1: wbwbw
Step 2: wbbbb
Step 3: bbbwb
Step 4: bwbww
Step 5: wwwww
The follow-up was to write a step_k function that could jump directly to the kth step in O(n) time.
There wasn't really a moment where I was caught off guard by the problem. It was fairly standard, and I felt confident about the overall approach. Most of the difficulty was just getting through the amount of implementation without making small mistakes. I did have some debugging issues along the way, but nothing particularly significant, and I ended up passing the test cases.
The interviewer was also pretty kind and helpful, which made the round feel fairly relaxed. I don't know yet what the rest of the process looks like. There may be an onsite afterward with around five rounds, but I haven't gotten confirmation on that.
Overall, I wouldn't say there were any major surprises or particularly challenging moments. It was mostly a long implementation problem where I felt good about the solution but had to spend some time debugging.
Questions asked: The first technical round was a coding problem about balls changing colors.
The interviewer gave me n balls, all initially white, and an array of marked positions. At each step, a ball at a marked position flips its color from white to black or black to white. After each step, the position advances by 1.
For example:
N = 5
markedPosition = [1, 3]
Step 0: wwwww
Step 1: wbwbw
Step 2: wbbbb
Step 3: bbbwb
Step 4: bwbww
Step 5: wwwww
I was first asked to implement a step function and print the colors of all the balls as the simulation progressed.
The follow-up was to implement a step_k function that could determine the state after k steps in O(n) time, rather than simulating every individual step.
That was essentially the entire technical problem. The main challenge was the implementation being relatively long, rather than the underlying algorithm being particularly difficult. I don't remember any unusual case prompts or take-home component from this round.
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| Question | |
|---|---|
| 2nd Highest Salary | |
| Merge Sorted Lists | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Top Three Salaries | |
| Employee Salaries | |
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Subscription Overlap | |
| Rolling Bank Transactions | |
| Top 5 Turnover Risk | |
| String Shift | |
| Maximum Profit | |
| Prime to N | |
| Bagging vs Boosting | |
| Find the Missing Number | |
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Find the First Non-Repeating Character in a String | |
| Top 3 Users | |
| Raining in Seattle | |
| P-value to a Layman | |
| Minimum Change | |
| Total Spent on Products | |
| The Brackets Problem | |
| Size of Joins | |
| Largest Salary by Department | |
| Over-Budget Projects | |
| Slacking Employees Salaries | |
| Google Maps Improvement | |
| First Touch Attribution | |
| Sum to N |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates report different starts. One describes a positive recruiter conversation, another an HR screen, and another a first round that was behavioral, focused on past projects and technical scope.
Candidates report a first technical round that may open with a discussion of a past project, followed by a coding problem. Reported problems include a two-part prefix-sum question and a simulation task with a step function and a follow-up to jump to step k in O(n). Interviewer helpfulness is reported as varying.
Candidates report probing questions about past projects, technical scope, and leading efforts, plus interest in the company. One candidate reports three past-experience conversations. Another says only one round, around the fourth, was a resume deep dive. Prepare a few projects you can defend in detail.
Candidates report loops of four or more technical rounds, and one describes seven rounds in total. Reports mention LeetCode-hard style algorithms, a long design-oriented coding session, a vague generic problem solver prompt, linear algebra questions, and a system design round that turned into coding. Timing is reported as tight.
One candidate reports that three references and transcripts were required before a decision. Reported outcomes in this evidence are mostly rejections, some with generic or mixed feedback, and two candidates were still waiting for a reply. Recruiter encouragement may not predict the result.