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Hiring processes · French tech companies

What the BlaBlaCar interview is like

BlaBlaCar, the French carpooling and bus travel app, lists every stage of its process in its engineering job posts, with the length in minutes. There are five calls; the longest is 90 minutes of live coding with engineers, and the last one checks whether you share the company's values. The posts ask for professional English, not French.

Stages (BlaBlaCar job posts)
5: Talent Acquisition, Engineering Manager, live coding, design, vision fit
Length of each stage
45, 60, 90, 60 and 30 minutes
Total length
25 to 30 days on average; offer within 48 h, per BlaBlaCar
Language
Full working proficiency in English; French not listed
Technical
90-min live coding and a design interview with engineers
Work model
Hybrid: 2 days a week in the office

What BlaBlaCar does and who it hires

BlaBlaCar calls itself the world's leading community-based travel app: 27 million members a year carpool or travel by bus in 21 countries. It has about 800 employees from more than 50 nationalities, and 30% work fully remotely.

Engineers work in small squads: the Care squad post mentions 3 backend and 1 frontend engineer; the Payment squad post, 10 backend and frontend engineers. Paris roles are hybrid, with 2 days a week in the office.

The stages, in order

The Confirmed Backend Engineer posts (Care and Payment squads, Paris) describe the same five video calls:

  • Talent Acquisition Manager (45 min): your background, motivation and what you are looking for.
  • Engineering Manager (60 min): your experience and how you fit the squad.
  • Live coding with software engineers (90 min).
  • Design interview with software engineers (60 min).
  • Vision fit (30 min): a call to check you share the company's vision and to round off the process.

What each stage tests

BlaBlaCar says the process lasts 25 to 30 days on average and that offers usually come within 48 hours. According to its Welcome to the Jungle page, some roles add an online test or a case study to assess hard and soft skills.

  • Talent Acquisition call: motivation and general fit with the role.
  • Engineering Manager: your experience and how you would work inside the squad.
  • Live coding: how you code and reason in real time with two engineers; one version of the post pairs it with a code review.
  • Design: system or application design, with the trade-offs explained.
  • Vision fit: alignment with BlaBlaCar's values, the BlaBlaPrinciples.

The values being assessed

BlaBlaCar publishes six principles, the BlaBlaPrinciples. Have an example ready for each before the vision-fit call:

  • Be the Member: think like the user.
  • Share more. Learn more.
  • Fail. Learn. Succeed.
  • Dream. Decide. Deliver.
  • Be Lean. Go Far.
  • Fun & Serious.

Which language the interview is in

The Payment squad post asks for "full working proficiency in English" and does not mention French. BlaBlaCar does not publish the language interviews are held in. One Glassdoor candidate complained about the interviewer's limited English, which suggests that interview was in English. Prepare to do the process in English and confirm the language with Talent Acquisition on the first call.

Tips

  • Practise 90 minutes of coding out loud in one go: it is the longest stage, and you do it with two engineers.
  • Prepare a full design interview: requirements, components, data and what you would change as traffic grows.
  • Read the six BlaBlaPrinciples and prepare a real story for each before the vision fit.
  • Have your references ready: a 2018 article on BlaBlaCar's process said they called the candidate's former managers.
  • BlaBlaCar states in its posts that it may use AI tools in parts of the process, but that final hiring decisions are made by people.

Practise the BlaBlaCar interview with Entrevia

Paste the real BlaBlaCar job post and your CV, and rehearse the live coding or the vision-fit interview out loud with an AI interviewer, in French, English, Spanish or Portuguese. At the end you get a scored debrief: which answers landed, which stayed vague and what you would be asked next.

You can try a free 7-turn web demo without signing up. A free account gives you 2 full interviews. Premium, in the iOS app, costs US$11.99 a month, US$29.99 for 3 months or US$59.99 a year.

Frequently asked questions

Is the BlaBlaCar interview in English?
BlaBlaCar does not say. Its engineering posts ask for full working proficiency in English and do not require French, and one candidate reports an interview in English. Prepare in English and confirm with the recruiter.
Do I need to speak French to work at BlaBlaCar?
In the engineering posts reviewed, French is not listed as a requirement; English is.
How long does the BlaBlaCar hiring process take?
According to its own posts, 25 to 30 days on average, and the offer usually comes within 48 hours of the last stage.
How many interviews does BlaBlaCar have?
Five in the backend posts: Talent Acquisition (45 min), Engineering Manager (60 min), live coding (90 min), design (60 min) and vision fit (30 min).
What is the BlaBlaCar live coding like?
A 90-minute session with software engineers. One version of the post describes it as live coding plus a code review with two engineers.
What are the BlaBlaPrinciples?
BlaBlaCar's six values: Be the Member; Share more. Learn more.; Fail. Learn. Succeed.; Dream. Decide. Deliver.; Be Lean. Go Far.; and Fun & Serious. They are assessed mainly in the vision fit.

Sources

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