3 levels
1st level is initial contact by company recruiter and lasts 5 minutes. Make sure this person is calling you about the correct job opening, as there was definitely some confusion on their end about whether I was applying for a 'backend developer' job or a 'data engineer' job.
2nd level is an hour long interview with a manager. The person I spoke with was very nice and made me feel at ease throughout the interview.
3rd level is an at-home technical challenge with a 3 hour time limit (being timed by your git commits). I found the challenge to be incredibly difficult and if I had to do it over again, I would have simply ignored the time limit and worked at my own pace until the project was complete.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1. Long form general questions going over what you've done with technology
2. If I was your biggest fan, what would I say about you?
I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Octopus Energy (München, Bavaria) in Feb 2025
Interview
I had a first interview with a recruiter, and it was a terrible experience. There was no introduction to the company, no information about the team, and nothing about the role itself. The recruiter jumped straight into questioning, asking about my past experience and technical skills without any context or engagement.
I was later rejected with feedback stating that I "didn’t present stronger examples of my experience or demonstrate greater passion for the position." How was I supposed to show excitement or passion when the interview was so dry, impersonal, and poorly conducted? It’s frustrating to be judged on enthusiasm when the interviewer made zero effort to create an engaging conversation or even explain why I should be excited about the opportunity.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Octopus Energy (Londra, Inghilterra) in Feb 2024
Interview
1. Phone call with recruiter who gave some more information about the role, asked for a brief run through of experience and then some formalities such as notice period and salary expectations.
2. Call with two managers that started with giving some more information about the role and then focused on interest in the company, the role and ways of working. There were a couple of high level technical questions mostly around previous experience. Plenty of opportunity to ask questions throughout.
3. Take home technical challenge based on a common task for the role. A detailed description and good quality data were provided. One of the managers made themselves available for another call to run through any questions about the task if required.
4. Final stage interview with hiring manager and director of the area. This had a few more questions around interest and motivation in the company and role before spending most of the time running through the technical assessment with questions around design decisions and analytical findings.
Throughout the whole process everyone was very friendly and the interviews were very conversational. There were never any questions intended to trip you up. Very responsive with next steps, never waited more than 1 or 2 working days to find out the outcome of each stage.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What interests you about the company and this role in particular?
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Octopus Energy in Aug 2022
Interview
A few stages one of which a technical test of Data Engineering concepts. The other stages centred more around reasons for applying to Octopus and general fit with the engineering tea.
Everyone was friendly throughout the process!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why are you interested in Octopus Energy, company and goals?