Newsela is one of the fastest-growing tech companies in K-12 education, founded on the principle that every child deserves a rich learning experience that ignites a love of learning. Their platform is grounded in learning science research, delivering engaging, authentic content to revolutionize classroom teaching. Since 2013, Newsela has established a presence in 90% of U.S. K-12 schools, with over 2.5M teachers and 37M students registered.

As a Senior Software Engineer, Search Relevance, you will enhance Newsela’s search engine to better serve its primary users, teachers and students. You’ll work on relevance, infrastructure, and latency reduction while collaborating closely with data scientists, product managers, and other engineers. This role offers the chance to significantly impact user experience and the broader educational landscape.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the interview process and provide valuable tips to help you succeed. Let's get started!

Submitting Your Application

The first step is to submit a compelling application that reflects your technical skills and interest in joining Newsela as a Senior Software Engineer, Search Relevance. Whether you were contacted by a Newsela recruiter or have taken the initiative yourself, carefully review the job description and tailor your CV according to the prerequisites.

Tailoring your CV may include identifying specific keywords that the hiring manager might use to filter resumes and crafting a targeted cover letter. Furthermore, don’t forget to highlight relevant skills and mention your work experiences.

Recruiter/Hiring Manager Call Screening

If your CV happens to be among the shortlisted few, a recruiter from the Newsela Talent Acquisition Team will make contact and verify key details like your experiences and skill level. Behavioral questions may also be a part of the screening process.

In some cases, the Newsela hiring manager may be present during the screening round to answer your queries about the role and the company itself. They may also discuss surface-level technical and behavioral topics.

The recruiter call typically lasts about 30 minutes.

Technical Virtual Interview

Successfully navigating the recruiter round will present you with an invitation for the technical screening round. Technical screening for the Newsela Senior Software Engineer, Search Relevance role is usually conducted through virtual means, including video conferencing and screen sharing. Questions in this 1-hour long interview stage may revolve around the Newsela search engine, Elasticsearch, and data structures.

In addition to live coding exercises, you might be given a take-home assignment focusing on search relevance and performance metrics. Your proficiency in Python, NLP, and ML Ops might also be assessed during this round.

Onsite Interview Rounds

Following a second recruiter call outlining the next stage, you’ll be invited to attend the onsite interview loop. Multiple interview rounds, varying with the role, will be conducted during your day at the Newsela office. Your technical prowess, including search infrastructure capabilities and system design, will be evaluated throughout these interviews.

If you were assigned take-home exercises, a presentation round may also be part of the onsite interview for the Software Engineer role at Newsela.

Quick Tips For Newsela Senior Software Engineer Interviews

You should plan to brush up on any technical skills and try as many practice interview questions and mock interviews as possible. A few tips for acing your Newsela interview include:

• Know Your Search Technologies: Newsela’s interview questions may delve deeply into technologies like Elasticsearch and NLP. Be prepared to discuss and solve problems related to search relevance, latency, and performance.
• Be Data Driven: Newsela values data-driven decision-making. Expect questions about your experience with data experimentation and performance metrics. Brush up on your knowledge of Python and ML Ops.
• Align With Newsela’s Mission: Newsela’s culture is heavily focused on improving education. Practice responding to behavioral questions with answers that reflect their core values and your interest in the education sector.

Typically, interviews at Newsela vary by role and team, but commonly Software Engineer interviews follow a fairly standardized process across these question topics.

• What metrics would you use to determine the value of each marketing channel? Given all the different marketing channels and their respective costs at Mode, a company selling B2B analytics dashboards, what metrics would you use to evaluate the value of each marketing channel?

• How would you measure the success of the banner ad strategy? An online media company wants to experiment with adding web banners into the middle of its reading content to monetize web traffic. How would you measure the success of this banner ad strategy?

• How would you analyze the performance of a new feature without an A/B test? As a data scientist at LinkedIn, you are working on a feature that allows job candidates to message hiring managers directly during the interview process. Due to engineering constraints, the company can't A/B test the feature before launching it. How would you analyze the feature's performance?

• How would you measure the health of the Mentions app and attribute engagement changes? Facebook is rolling out a new feature called "Mentions" for celebrities to connect with their fans. How would you measure the health of the Mentions app? Additionally, if a celebrity starts using Mentions and interacts more with fans, how would you attribute the increase to the app versus the celebrity's desire to engage more?

• What would you investigate to diagnose changes in user engagement and email open rates? As a data scientist on the engagement team, a product manager informs you that the weekly active users metric is up 5% but email notification open rates are down 2%. What would you investigate to diagnose what's happening?

• Write a function pick_host to determine the optimal friend to host a party based on location. Given a group of (N) friends represented by a list of dictionaries where each value is a friend's name and their location on a three-dimensional scale ((x, y, z)), write a function pick_host to return the friend that should host the party. The goal is to minimize the total travel distance for the group.

• How would you evaluate and validate a decision tree model for predicting loan repayment? You are tasked with building a decision tree model to predict if a borrower will repay a personal loan. How would you evaluate if a decision tree is the correct model? If you proceed, how would you evaluate its performance before and after deployment?

• How would you compare a new delivery time estimate model to the old one? You want to build a new delivery time estimate model for food delivery. How would you determine if the new model predicts delivery times better than the old model?

• How would you evaluate the performance of a new search engine for Google? You are building a better search engine for Google. How would you determine if it serves better results than the existing one in production? Which metrics would you track?

• What are the benefits of dynamic pricing, and how can you estimate supply and demand? Explain the benefits of dynamic pricing. How would you estimate supply and demand in this context?

• How would you design a machine learning model to classify major health issues? You work for a health insurance company. Design a machine learning model that classifies if an individual will undergo major health issues based on a set of health features.

• What is an unbiased estimator and can you provide an example for a layman to understand? Explain what an unbiased estimator is in simple terms and provide an easy-to-understand example.

• What are the benefits of dynamic pricing, and how can you estimate supply and demand in this context? Describe the advantages of dynamic pricing and explain how to estimate supply and demand when using this pricing strategy.

• How would you design a machine learning model to predict major health issues for a health insurance company? As a machine learning engineer, create a model that classifies individuals based on health features to predict if they will face major health issues.

What is the average salary for a Software Engineer at Newsela?

Q: What does a Senior Software Engineer, Search Relevance at Newsela do?

A: The Senior Software Engineer focuses on enhancing Newsela’s search engine to ensure it meets the needs of teachers and students. This includes improving search relevance, reducing latency, and cutting experiment costs, as well as working closely with data scientists, product managers, and other engineers to bring innovative techniques to the search infrastructure.

Q: Why would I love this role?

A: You'll join a dynamic Content Discovery team and work on cutting-edge search engine technology. You'll have the opportunity to make a significant impact on the educational experience of countless students and teachers by developing semantic search capabilities and creating engaging, culturally responsive content. Plus, the team culture is fun with virtual get-togethers and events!

Q: What makes me a great fit for this position?

A: You have over 3 years of experience with Python, data structures, and search relevance. Experience with SOLR/Elasticsearch, NLP, and ML Ops is crucial, as well as an ability to design and build scalable backend systems. Moreover, your product mindset allows you to think like a user and collaborate effectively with product managers.

Q: What is Newsela’s company culture like?

A: Newsela fosters a supportive, inclusive culture with a strong emphasis on health and wellness, flexible remote work options, and comprehensive family support programs. The company values diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), with robust initiatives and open, transparent leadership conversations. Professional growth is encouraged through various development programs and resources.

Q: How can I best prepare for an interview with Newsela?

A: Familiarize yourself with Newsela’s mission and tools, practice technical questions, and review your past experiences relevant to the job. Platforms like Interview Query can provide helpful resources and practice questions tailored to the role you're applying for.

Ready to join a team that’s revolutionizing K-12 education? Dive into the opportunity as a Senior Software Engineer, Search Relevance at Newsela, and contribute to the innovation of our next-generation search engine that impacts over 70% of our user base. With the chance to improve the educational experience for millions and a supportive, inclusive culture offering flexible PTO, remote work, and professional development opportunities, Newsela is the place where your work will truly make a difference.

For more insights about the company and comprehensive preparation resources, check out our main Newsela Interview Guide. At Interview Query, we provide you with the tools, confidence, and knowledge to ace your Newsela interview. Explore all our company interview guides and give yourself the best chance to succeed.

Good luck with your interview!