I applied online. I interviewed at Clipboard in May 2026
Interview
I sent in an application for the role already knowing that their interview process started with an async exercise. What I was not expecting was to immediately be sent a *seventeen page* technical design document and be expected to fully parse, review, critique, and provide feedback on it. That is a bananapants expectation from them, there is no way I'm investing that much time and energy on something without having had a single word of human conversation first. I have no idea if I'd be a cultural fit, I have no idea what the salary and benefits are, zero indication of what the role actually entails, and you want me to spend hours on unpaid labor? Forget that noise. If they want to wholly outsource initial filtering to candidates, in a way that is expensive, but not for them, they're more than welcome to do so, just not with me.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
As a manager your goal is to (a) evaluate that the TDD is technically sound, the design decisions are valid for the stated problem and if this document is sufficient for development on the feature and (b) provide written feedback to the author that would help them improve not just this document, but their approach to future technical designs. Your feedback should demonstrate how you'd coach an engineer to think more clearly about these problems, and to help them understand how to do better next time. Please prepare written feedback for the author of the TDD summarizing your view of the work at the bottom of this document. Feel also add inline comments to this document as you see fit. You will be evaluated on the quality as well as the content of your feedback. [seventeen page document follows]
I applied online. I interviewed at Clipboard in May 2026
Interview
I participated in an interview process for an Engineering Manager role.
They immediately sent a fairly extensive take-home 17-page document with an architectural and management assessment, mimicking an engineering manager reviewing a design produced by a team member.
The exercise required producing a detailed analysis and recommendations in a shared Google Docs document.
I invested significant personal time into the assignment and produced several pages of original content without using AI-generated assistance.
After submission, I received a generic rejection message without personalized feedback regarding the assessment or areas where my profile did not align with the role.
Given the seniority and technical depth expected for the position, I was hoping for at least minimal feedback after the amount of work requested during the process.
From my perspective, the expectations for the role were set extremely high for outstanding candidates, especially because my background exceeded all listed requirements, including long-term engineering leadership and solutions architecture experience.
The experience left me with the impression that the evaluation process may rely heavily on standardized filtering rather than detailed candidate assessment.
Candidates considering this process should be prepared for a time-intensive assignment phase without guarantees of feedback after submitting answers.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
As a manager your goal is to (a) evaluate that the TDD is technically sound, the design decisions are valid for the stated problem and if this document is sufficient for development on the feature and (b) provide written feedback to the author that would help them improve not just this document, but their approach to future technical designs. Your feedback should demonstrate how you'd coach an engineer to think more clearly about these problems, and to help them understand how to do better next time. Please prepare written feedback for the author of the TDD summarizing your view of the work at the bottom of this document. Feel also add inline comments to this document as you see fit. You will be evaluated on the quality as well as the content of your feedback.
I applied online. I interviewed at Clipboard in Feb 2026
Interview
After submitting my application, I got quick (automated?) reply to do a PR review through Github. I shared my Github username, and their system created a private repo with the simplified project and PR. I cloned the repo, and got it running on my local NodeJS + PostgreSQL environment. Pulled and reviewed the PR, and used Postman to test the new APIs. Found a number of issues, and submitted my comments. I was very thorough, and did more than I should need to for an EM role by including all suggested fixes with my comments. All I got was a reply that they will not be moving forward with my application, with no feedback at all about what they thought I could have done better.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Paraphrasing: when leaving comments, explain the "why", and your comments should stand on their own to explain the full depth of reasoning.
