Interview process starts with a phone conversation with a recruiter. Pretty standard recruiter call, they ask you about what you're currently doing in your role and see where you'd be a good fit. Some basic OOP questions might be asked like 'Explain the difference between class composition and inheritance'. Next step was a zoom interview with a senior engineer. They showed a series of c# code snippets and asked you to do a code review on them like you would during a merge request. They're looking for things like better function / variable naming, extracting bits of code out to their own functions / services, better resource management (using StringBuilder rather than mutating a string), those sorts of things. There was also a SQL snippet they showed to see how you'd improve the query speed. Next round was a behavioral round with a engineering manager. The focus was mainly on communication between different groups (dev, product management, IT, etc) and how you handle multiple deadlines for important projects that conflict. Some discussion about how you protect code quality. A bit of discussion about resolving interpersonal conflicts with other engineers. If you make it past that round the recruiter will send you some instructions to complete a take home project. For me it was a react front-end with a C# backend. You're expected to complete functionality like implementing CRUD methods for some data, along with implementing some business rules. They're looking for good architecture that can handle new and changing business requirements easily. Expect to spend ~10 hours on it. Final round is with another Senior / Staff engineer. Surprisingly we spent very little time going over the take home project, which was a bit of a bummer after spending ~10 hours on it. Be prepared to discuss how you'd improve upon it if it was going to be deployed to production. Most of this interview was the interviewer asking you a series of questions about the SDLC lifecycle. How you approach merge requests, ensure code quality, app observability, how a service could be scaled out, etc.

In short, I had very mixed feelings from the process. On one hand some parts felt very rushed and on the other the company was stalling and general internal chaos around hiring. To elaborate: I was approached by one of the internal recruiters, the offer was interesting so I agreed to a call. First call was alright, 30 minutes of speaking with the recruiter about the company and lining up expectations and basic info. Second call scheduled for the same week. Second call with the manager of the team that was being hired for and another dev. Manager conversation was great, seemed like a good fit and vibes were good. A minor red flag was admitting that they are unable to hire for the position for quite a long time now and are desperate to hire someone. Conversation with the dev was much different. They were asking questions clearly generated by ChatGPT if one asked "give me 10 difficult javascript questions" (I would know, I tried after and got 10/10) and they expected the verbatim answers and wouldn't take factually correct but worded differently ones. Proceed to the code challenge. Conceptually relatively simple however you are asked to complete the challenge within 24-48 hours. Which seems a bit short since you have to create a multi page application with CRUD, mocked API and tests. I turned in the assignment in two days and the review call was scheduled the same week. Review call All good, talked about the assignment. I was asked to explain some of my choices and make minor changes. Overall great result, all parties seemed very happy. And then silence. I followed up 3 times, mostly out of curiosity. 1st follow up I was told no decision was made yet 2nd got no response 3rd I was told that the position I was being hired for was in the meantime eliminated and that they are actively looking for an alternative. Later the same week I was told the company unable to provide an alternative and won't continue the hiring process but will approach me with future offers. The team members themselves seemed great, but the experience left me disappointed. The lack of follow-through and shifting circumstances suggested some internal hiring chaos. If the right opportunity came up, I might consider interviewing again, but I’d do so with tempered expectations.