So you finally made it into the hiring pipeline for a developer role in Japan.

First of all, congratulations.

Your next steps will largely depend on the company and position you applied for. But after personally going through job hunting with international tech companies in Japan, I noticed a pattern.

And while most interviews won’t come close to the infamous FAANG processes, there’s a good chance you’ll still have to navigate a couple of hoops and ladders before considering any offers.

As for me, I’m a software engineer who has lived in Japan for close to six years. I made the transition from teaching to tech around three years ago. 

From my successes and failures, I hope to share what you can expect when applying for a dev job in Japan.

So what does a software engineer interview process in Japan look like? 

Again, it’s important to emphasize I'm mainly referencing international companies in Japan.

Meaning my insight may differ from that of traditional Japanese companies. 

With this in mind, my interviews have been similarly in line with the overseas tech industry. 

A repeating structure I came across was a four-stage series.

From a high level, the stages are:

1. An initial screening

2. A technical assessment

3. A technical interview

4. A culture check

Sometimes there’s more, and sometimes there’s less.

However, I’ll use these points to highlight each stage traditionally encountered. 

Starting with the first one, which is always guaranteed: the initial screening.

Stage 1 - The initial screening

For more established companies, this is with an HR representative.

For growing start-ups, this is more likely with a tech lead, CTO, or even the CEO or founder of the company.

Whatever the case is, the initial screening is there to ensure you’re the person you said you were on the resume. The company just wants to see if you’re a good character fit.

Usually, this is conducted on a web call. In most cases, it's thirty minutes, but sometimes it can be longer.

The main format begins with introductions, followed by a series of questions like:

• Why do you want to work at [company’s name]?

• Tell me more about your professional technical background.

• Do you enjoy coding? Tell me about something you made just for fun.

Also, if the job description states you need Japanese, be prepared. You should familiarise yourself with at least the basics of Japanese interview questions. 

Concluding the interview, it’s also not uncommon to be asked how much money you’re expecting to make. This can come off brash for some. But this is the company’s way of ensuring it can accommodate your expectations. But so long as this is something you’re already aware of, what really matters for this interview is:

• You didn’t lie on your resume

• You can hold a decent conversation about yourself

• You can explain your technical background in ways nontechnical audiences can understand

As long as you can do the above, you should be fine.

And once you pass this round, it’s on to the technical assessment. 

Stage 2 - The technical assessment

If you pass the initial first round, this is where the process fluctuates. The next step is usually one of the following:

• a take-home project

• a take-home quiz

• a live-coding challenge

And as of late, don’t be surprised if it’s more than one, or all the above.

Take-home project

This is probably one of the most common technical assessments I’ve crossed paths with.

The take-home project is an asynchronous assignment you can work on remotely at your own pace. It gets administered after passing the initial interview phase. You’ll get around one to two weeks to submit the project. And in some cases, the deadline is undefined and up to you. If the deadline is up to you, it means the company is trusting you to deliver and communicate at your own pace. However, bear in mind that this is also a test of your time management and organizational skills. And while the lengths and requirements of take-home projects vary, you don’t want to submit an assignment too early or too late. 

Unless the project was small or easy, submission within a couple of days can raise suspicion. Concerns about thoroughness, haste, and sustainability might surface in a later interview if you pass. And if you’re unable to complete the assignment beyond a month, keep in mind the company has other candidates they’re actively interviewing. 

Generally, so long as a complete project is submitted within one to two weeks, you should be fine. If you don’t communicate a valid reason for why you haven’t submitted a project, do not be surprised if the role gets filled or your candidacy is terminated. 

The only time I submitted an assignment beyond three weeks was when I caught the norovirus midway through the assessment. I made sure to communicate this to the test administrator, and when I finally submitted a complete project, there weren’t any issues.

What do they look like?

Depending on the company and role, the take-home project will differ.

Directives can range from explicitly clear to vague and open to interpretation. Submissions can also weigh differently. Some projects mandate full deployment versus bundling zip files and sharing git history.

Overall, the ones I received have been fairly straightforward.

For a full stack role, the requirements would be split between backend and frontend. For the backend, you’ll be tested on how to implement basic CRUD functionality in the company’s architectural style. Then, the frontend displays the CRUD implementation through user interactivity.

Or sometimes I’d receive a legacy code project, pre-equipped with failing tests.

The goal would be to make the tests pass without drastically altering any core behavior. And in some cases, they’d ask to implement new features on top of what was already built.

Overall, these projects felt less about showing off with out-of-the-box solutions. More appropriately, they tested how I worked on a codebase relative to their own.

Take-home quiz

If you’re applying for jobs in Japan on LinkedIn, you’ll eventually run into these. When your resume passes an applicant tracking system, you'll get a link to a quiz. 

In my case, sometimes these were administered directly after the initial screening interview.

What do they look like?

Although the format and amount of questions varied, a few things remained consistent across all quizzes I took:

• You have to complete the quiz in a fixed time duration

• Using AI assistance, Google Search, or any 3rd party help is prohibited

• Once you start the quiz, you have to finish it within the same session

• Your session is being monitored to help detect suspicious behavior or cheating

Most of the time, I was able to pick any coding language of my preference from a range of two to three choices.

From there, the test-taking formats also differed between:

• Multiple choice (10~300 questions)

• Categorical specific (frontend, backend, practical implementation)

Once you’re done with the quiz and click the submit button, the results are in the hands of your interviewers. Most likely, you’ll receive feedback fairly quickly, within a couple of days at most. 

The textbook knowledge was particularly challenging for me. With my unconventional coding background, these were the most difficult.

Enhancing my scores required hitting the books, which was something I wasn’t accustomed to. 

A great resource I found was A Common Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms by Jay Wengrow. For dense knowledge and abstract concepts, it was relatively readable and easy to understand.

Likewise, taking a couple of Udemy courses with practical exercises helped cement theoretical definitions and structures. 

A Live Coding Challenge

As implied in the name, it’s a coding challenge done under live surveillance by your interviewer.

These are fairly common in FAANG and big tech companies. 

Although recently, I’ve begun to notice them in more Japan-based interview pipelines.

What do they look like?

At least in Japan, most live coding challenges take place remotely. You'll screen share a live session with a test administrator (usually the tech lead).

I haven’t heard of companies requiring whiteboarding or in-person challenges, but it’s never outside of the realm of possibility.

For my live coding interviews, I haven't identified one distinct format. They were vastly dependent on the company's style and coding culture.

However, what seems consistent from the ones I’ve taken are:

- You get an hour to read the requirements and solve the problem - A tech lead and other potential members of the tech team observe you - The use of AI is prohibited All in all, these interviews tested my communication skills in collaboration with coding.

How I’d Prepare for Technical Assessments in Japan

After experiencing all three formats (and undergoing a lot of failure), a few things became clear. This is how I’d approach technical assessments in Japan if I were starting all over again: 

1. Show and communicate your work

No matter the technical assessment, executing code in the dark is a red flag. You’ll want to know how to properly write documentation for take-home projects. It also wouldn't hurt to familiarise yourself with conventional commits. And unless specifically stated otherwise, always write tests to accommodate your implementations. In the case of live coding interviews, verbalising logic while coding can help. Finding a mentor or pair programming with a peer is even better if possible. Opportunities like this came to me while volunteering for a codebase. In the end, the interviewers don’t just want to see a solved problem; they want to know how and why you solved the problem.

1. Treat job listings like a roadmap

You should rarely be caught off guard by technical assessments in Japan. If a role states that they use Typescript and Python, expect to use them. What’s on the assessment should be clear based on what was written from the start. It should also be a good indication of what you should or shouldn’t apply for. One of my biggest sources of rejection came from applying to roles where I wasn’t familiar with the tech stack. A take-home would be administered, and I’d waste days figuring out how to work the basics. 

Sometimes I'd scramble together a passing project. Then, when I reached Stage 3, my lack of knowledge and experience with the code was exposed instantly. You'll see what I mean in the next section.

1. Don’t be afraid to ask questions

It's better to clarify ambiguity than waste time overengineering based on assumptions. By flagging things early, sometimes this saved me days of second-guessing. Especially in the rare case where an incorrect version of a test was accidentally administered, I also received an apology from the interviewers. And to be honest, if there’s a company that isn’t open to questions, you probably don’t want to work for them.

1. Know your fundamentals well

At the core of this field lies the foundations of computer science.

Don't neglect the fundamentals.

Really study up on your DSA. Whether it’s a Udemy course or a book, it will all pay off not just for these assessments, but for your career longevity.

Stage 3 - The technical interview

And if you manage to get past the technical assessment hurdle. You’re almost there. But more often than not, there’s a follow-up technical interview. 

In some cases, where Stage 2 was a live coding assessment, I’ve seen this stage eliminated. However, if you just finished a take-home project or quiz, you should be prepared.

This round is mostly one or two members of the direct team you’d be working with. 

Here’s what you can expect

If Stage 2 was a take-home project…

Most likely, you’ll screen share and present a live demo of your app. This is assessed by how well you can explain your code in a logical, easy-to-understand way.

And if you pass that check, they may want you to dive deeper. 

Things like edge cases. Why did you choose to write code a certain way? Or how you’d improve a specific feature or implementation if provided more time. 

If Stage 2 was a take-home quiz or live coding challenge…

Sometimes this interview is more like a continuation of computer science trivia.

I've also received theoretical questions about how I’d solve an everyday technical problem.

Other times, the tech lead just wanted to know more about my technical expertise in detail.

Overall…

This interview clarifies that you are the person who submitted the work. 

And based on your technical communication skills, the hiring team will choose if you're a good fit.

In most companies in Japan, if you pass this round, you’re through to a final interview. 

Stage 4 - The Culture Check

Lastly, this interview is here to seal the deal. 

As the name implies, it’s a final check to ensure that you’re a good culture fit.

This interview is usually with someone from leadership. And it's not uncommon for it to be a non-technical person. Depending on the scale and priorities of the company, this could also be with the CEO or founder.

What to expect…

This one’s a bit tricky to prepare for.

For me, some have been straightforward, others have been tricky. 

Some were centered more from a business and operational standpoint. How would my being hired prove a valuable asset to the company and their future and current goals? Others were more philosophical, with an extreme emphasis on individual dreams and passions. What was my north star leading me in life, and how does that apply to the company? 

But if you pass this final screening, you should receive a final offer.

A couple of red flags…

Spotting red flags is tricky, because you’ve made it this far and you almost feel like you can’t turn back at this point.

But despite the effort it took to get here, the last thing you want to do is shake hands with a deal you don’t feel right about.

If you’re this far in and you just have a gut feeling that something isn’t right, here are a few things worth considering:

• The details in the original job description you applied for have been altered drastically

• A contract in writing never surfaces, and you’re pulling teeth to get a finalized copy The position may not be needed anymore, but they need to talk internally first

If any or all of the above strike true, it might be a sign for reconsideration on your part. The last thing you’d want to do is sign yourself off to a “black” company.

Final Thoughts

Passing a technical interview process in Japan isn’t necessarily easier or harder. But it never hurts to know what you can expect in advance and properly prepare.

And if you find yourself getting close but falling short at later stages, try to keep your head up. Although continuing through rejection is hard, if you've even made it to stages 3 or 4, you’re probably operating at the right level. 

It's just a matter of finding the right alignment with the right place.

If you’ve made it into the pipeline, you’re already past the hardest part. The rest is learning how to navigate it all one stage at a time.