I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Proofpoint in Aug 2010
Interview
The recruiter who contacted me was very nice and helpful. He set up a phone screen for me with the hiring manager. He said to expect a standard 30-45 minute session.
The hiring manager called me about 15 minutes late, seemed to be very distracted. Spoke for about 10 minutes, and said he will arrange for an on-site interview.
I never heard from him again. I contacted the recruiter, who also said he had not received a feedback from the manager. He spoke to him and let me know he decided to go with someone else.
Overall, I think it was very irresponsible on their part to not follow up, and make a decision based on a hurried, 10 minute conversation
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What Java collection would you use to store a million strings
Took nearly 2 months, 1 call with recruiter, 1 call with hiring manager (slightly technical), 1 call with staff engineer and 2 seniors, 1 more in person interview with 2 senior AI engineers.
I applied online. I interviewed at Proofpoint (Fort Collins, CO) in Apr 2026
Interview
Did a two hour coding project which was cool, for the initial job screening. It involved creating a app in C# and seemed to go pretty well. However the ghosted me after doing it, followed up on three separate occasions no response.
I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Proofpoint (Toronto, ON) in Jun 2025
Interview
I had an interview with a recruiter. It was a typical HR interview and it lasted about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I was ghosted even after I sent a follow-up email.
Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Proofpoint with 2.8 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 38% positive. To compare, the company-average is 44.8% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 33 days to get hired, when considering 27 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Proofpoint overall takes an average of 29 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Proofpoint as a Software Engineer according to 27 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 28%
One on one interview: 18%
Presentation: 16%
Skills test: 10%
Group panel interview: 8%
Drug test: 6%
Background check: 6%
IQ intelligence test: 4%
Other: 4%
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