Karat Software Engineer interview with a rigid one-hour technical screen

My first contact involved scheduling and then a technical screen. The format felt time-boxed and rigid. I had a hard one-hour window, and the interaction style made it difficult to build momentum. We started with a quick setup where I was asked to explain my background in about a minute. The rest of the session became a quiz with multiple abstract scenarios, and I had to come up with solutions.

As the quiz continued, there was very little room for back-and-forth. When I asked clarifying questions, the interviewer mostly restated the prompt instead of engaging with what I had asked. The timer-driven structure was especially noticeable when I finished a question early and still had to wait out the remaining time. Once the hour ended, the interviewer stopped even though I was in the middle of a coding task.

By the end, it felt less like I was being evaluated on my reasoning and more like my answers were being compared with an expected solution. I also saw that a redo option existed, which helped explain why it was offered as a catch-up mechanism. I didn’t receive specific or actionable feedback, and I left frustrated, feeling that the structure measured completion more than how I solved the problems.

Location: Settle, KY. Overall feedback: Negative. Offer status: No offer.