At Modash, we practice transparency in everything -- and the hiring process is no different. No secrets, no surprises. Here's what you can expect from the process.

I'll start with an outline:

Outline of the interview process

This is the "TL;DR"

1. Chat with our Recruiter
2. General Technical Assessment interview (~1.5hr)
3. System design (~2hr)
4. Get to know Avery - our CEO
5. Reference check (~1-2 days)
6. Offer, negotiations, paperwork.
7. Let’s rock together!

Now, a little more detail...

Technical interviews at Modash

Say goodbye to pineapple tree sorting and Leet code-style tasks! Our interviews are all about practical challenges and real scenarios, so you can show off your skills in the most relevant way possible. 🌟

We try to mimic as closely as possible tasks as an engineer at Modash: using AI, reading code, writing code, and architecting.

This is a good chance for you to see what it’s like to work with us and for us to see what it’s like to work with you. Don’t stress out. Ask questions, think out loud. You can consider us your noob colleagues who are eager to learn. We will be like a 2-year-old: why, why, why.

General Technical Assessment

We no longer run a traditional live coding challenge. Live coding without AI no longer reflects how strong engineers actually work, and watching someone wait for an AI agent to generate code is not the best use of interview time either.

Instead, this interview is designed to understand how you think, communicate, review code, reason about tradeoffs, and use modern engineering tools in a realistic way.

Structure of the interview: 

1. 35-minute discussion about a complex project you’ve built or owned end-to-end
2. 30-minute code review challenge
3. 15-minute discussion about your AI-assisted engineering workflow
4. Q&A for you to ask any questions

Before the interview, we’ll ask you to prepare a short walkthrough of the most complex production project you’ve personally built or owned. It should be something used by real customers, ideally with meaningful product and technical complexity.

Prepare to cover:

• what problem it solved and why it mattered
• what made it hard
• what you personally owned, decided, designed, or built
• the architecture and key tradeoffs
• what happened after it shipped
• what you’d do differently now

Visuals are optional, but recommended. Use whatever helps you explain clearly: Excalidraw, Miro, slides, notes, or anything else.

In the code review section, we’ll ask you to review a realistic pull request. We’re looking for judgement, not nitpicking. Good review comments explain the risk, suggest a better option, and understand the product or system context behind the change.

In the AI workflow section, we’ll ask how you actually use AI when building software. We’re interested in real workflows, real tools, real failures, and how you verify AI-written code. Generic “I use ChatGPT to go faster” answers won’t tell us much. We want to understand your judgement: what you delegate, what you keep manual, and how you avoid shipping plausible-looking mistakes.

Few tips to succeed in this interview:

• think out loud
• explain the “why” behind your decisions
• separate what you personally owned from what the team did
• be honest about tradeoffs and mistakes
• show how you reason from customer impact, not just technical preference
• for code review, focus on meaningful risks rather than style-only comments
• for AI usage, bring specific examples from your actual workflow

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System design interview

Why system design interviews? You said it involves day-to-day tasks.

That’s right. From time to time, you’ll have to create technical documents. It involves breaking down requirements and making appropriate rectangles. This means drawing high-level components and showing how they interact with each other. Imagine system design interviews as a virtual puzzle party, where you're the puzzle master. It's like building a LEGO set for your app's success!

Also, we are scaling up quite fast, so it’s important for you to recognise when our systems can’t keep up with demand and the solutions you need to apply to handle the amount of data properly without over-engineering. That’s why having a good understanding of distributed systems is important.

We recommend using excalidraw.com for this interview, if you don't have any other tool preferences.

If you haven’t done architecture in a while or a system design interview, we recommend brushing up. You can find you can find some valuable resources here.

Few tips out here:

• think out loud.
• start with a high-level design before diving into details.
• clearly explain how data moves through the system.
• discuss pros and cons of design choices.
• visualize your design with clear, simple diagrams.
• anticipate questions and be prepared to defend your decisions.

FAQ

How long is the interview process?

We're a small & agile company, and we move fast in our interview processes as well. While we work around your schedule too, the whole interview process is usually completed within a few weeks.

It’s all about finding the right person. We'll start interviewing as soon as the right person reaches us. We don't wait weeks collecting applications before responding.

How can I prepare for technical interviews?

Regardless of whether it’s a technical interview or not, prepare by getting to know more about the company and the people who are interviewing. Think of the questions you want to ask from them.

Regarding the technical side, we don’t require any 8 weeks of boot camp interview prep. If you reviewed code, wrote code and created cloud architectures you are good to go.

What is the compensation like?

Check our careers page. We are transparent and list salaries there.

Where do you do your interviews?

As we’re a remote-first company, we use either Google Meet or Zoom for our interviews. We are flexible so if you have any preference, let the recruiter know.

How to apply?

You can apply by sending your application over to our recruiter via email maarja@modash.io. If you have any additional questions, you can also do so via email or through Linkedin.

Tips and tricks

Practice thinking out loud. For us, it’s not that important to finish the task. We need to understand how you think, how you approach problems, how you Google, how you…

Ask questions. Dunno why, but most people think that if they are interviewed they are not allowed to ask questions. Like they lose points or something. We value and encourage this. In startups, it’s really important to speak up and question the status quo.

Imagine that you are already working with us. You are solving a problem with your colleagues. Helping every creator in the world make a living.