The process was the following: 1. Engineering Manager interview 2. Tech lead interview (technical discussion) 3. Take-home project 4. VP of Eng and Director 5. Professional Reference checks Good rapport with the EM and tech lead, they were impressed by the project I had completed. They wanted me to chat with the VP of Engineer within 2 business days of providing feedback on the project. The talks with them went well and the EM suggested an offer after asking for professional references. All of my references were solid. Then the rug got pulled out from under me. The last update was they were wrapping candidates followed by a generic rejection. The EM did leave the company before the rejection and a new director took over the process. They may have had other goals for role. Overall the tail end of process produced mix signalling and poor communication with no feedback.

The interview process consisted of 4 rounds: a behavioral style interview with the engineering director, 2 technical rounds focused on project experience and Leetcode, as well as a take-home as the final round. Overall I really enjoyed speaking with my interviewers. They were all smart and passionate about their work, as well as empathetic. Definitely people I would've enjoyed having as co-workers. Despite that, the interview process was a bit of a mess. They repeated the same questions during each technical round. Communication was sparse between rounds, sometimes a week or two would go by without any kind of follow-up. The worst part was the lack of feedback. The final round is a non-trivial take home. After completing it, I received a generic rejection email with no insights into why (similar to other interviewees). Given how much time I invested into their interview process at this point, I would've expected some basic feedback. Ultimately, the impression I got was that Appcues is a fine place to work with great people, but thats hidden behind a broken recruitment process. Like other reviewers have mentioned, my advice would be to improve the communication between the company and their candidates.