I met a Redfin software engineer at my career fair and my resume was the application. She left a good impression on me with a thorough description of life at Redfin. I was contacted about a week later and had a skype interview scheduled with someone out in the SF office. First some random questions about past projects and interests and then had a technical interview. Total was 45 minutes to an hour. Very low-stress and interviewer was great about giving account of what went on at Redfin. Another week later I was given a chance for an on-site interview at the SF office. They flew me out the night before and housed me at a 4-star hotel like 2 minutes from the office. I did have to sign an NDA but I assume the interview process doesn't count as a "business strategy" so I think I can share this. Interviews started around 10am when I walked into their office. They led me to their kitchen for a couple snacks and then a tour around the place. First had an interview with a manager who asked me to answer a white-board coding question. Relatively simple algorithmic question but I didn't do too well and couldn't get the optimal solution without some prodding (in retrospect, it was probably my all-time worst performance). I was given a chance to ask questions about Redfin at the end. Very positive interview despite my poor performance. 45 minutes later, the manager brought in another interviewer who went straight into coding (also whiteboard). IMO this question was a lot more difficult and I again made a REALLY BIG mistake but think I managed to convey how I think (e.g. came up with a genius solution that wasn't really a solution lol). At the end, I got another 5-10 minutes to ask questions. Was really nice because they try to find interviewers from different groups so you get to learn about all the different groups. After that, I went out to lunch with two employees. The French restaurant we ate at was meh but the employees (both relatively new hires) were pretty cool though they seemed to be going through an illicit office romance and were more interested in each other than me lol. After lunch, had a final interview. This interview was more open-ended and I was given a sheet of paper with code and had to offer suggestions. Design choices primarily. There were so many ways to answer that it wasn't even funny. But the question did shed light on what engineers at Redfin experienced. Really awesome interviewer and I learned more from this interviewer than from anyone else. After that I left. Reimbursed for everything like two weeks later. Overall, I think the experience was extremely positive and although I didn't end up taking the offer, I still think about it from time to time and what could have been. The recruiter I talked to left a really positive impression on me and I hope other companies can learn from this company's interview process. I will definitely seriously consider this company for my full-time career.

The whole process was really smooth. The engineers were great to meet and you could tell from talking with them the kind of culture that Redfin had created (humble, quirky, genuinely good people).