Usually, we reserve 5 minutes for interviewees to ask questions to the interviewer. Here are some common questions, with my standard replies copied.

How is the remote culture like at Quora?

  • Working remotely provides great flexibility. You do not need to commute, wake up on time, as long as you attend meetings and contribute.
  • We have all-hands most of the weeks, which includes a Q&A where you can ask any questions. The question will definitely be addressed if it has a few upvotes.
  • Admittedly, socially it is not very engaging to work remotely. I guess most engineers have their own family and social life already.
  • However, as a new grad who do not have much friends here, you might want more in-person social interaction, and the office do provide that.
  • Regarding the office
    • Personally I go to the office every day to avoid preparing lunch.
    • Ever since I started going to the office after moving to Mountain View, I have never seen the CEO.
    • The engineer headcount is slightly more than a hundred, the average daily engineer attendance in the office is 12.
    • Half of the engineers who come to the office often graduated from college less than 3 years ago. We are also from different teams.

How is the work-life balance like at Quora?

  • The co-ordination hours is officially 9pm to 3pm Pacific Time. Engineers are expected to be available for meetings during this period.
  • Outside of this time, you are free to decide when to work.
  • You are not expected to work overtime at night or during weekends. Sometimes it might be more convenient for me to deploy at night for easier code reversal.
  • I would say that I work for 7 hours a day on average.
  • After some time in the company, you are expected to do oncall rotations. I have not started my oncall rotations.