I applied online.

HR Screening Call > Homework Assignment > Code Review on Submission + System Design interview > Managerial Interview

What was great:

• HR recruiters were very supportive at every stage and they check in with you to prep you for the next round. They provide feedback timely as well. Process was structured.
• It’s refreshing to see a non-LeetCode style way (assignment) of assessing candidates. Personally felt that this reflects a candidate’s competency in the role better.
• The interviewers were somewhat engaging in certain ways (Well I’ve seen worse SWE interviewers who were really terrible at conducting interviews elsewhere, even in more reputable companies).

What was weird:

• Interviewed by 2 senior engineers i.e. same level as me. Don’t think it’s appropriate nor were they qualified to be evaluating system-design interviews solely by themselves—this seniority isn’t that high to warrant such peer-level assessments. It’s funny that there was not a single staff engineer/engineering manager whom they could have invited to co-conduct/lead.
• Looked up the interviewers’ profiles online, 1 of them joined the company barely 4 months. Don’t understand why the management would send a new joiner to conduct interviews.
• The ones who marked the assignment were not the interviewers who conducted the code-review session. The interviewers had to go through the feedback and peruse my submission on the spot. They could have been better prepared.

Unlike some interviews I had with other companies, I wasn't bothered by the outcome (rejected) because searching them up online reveals a pandemic of controversial commentaries about the working environment. A recurring theme amongst them was about attrition rate, which could be a possible explanation to the red flags raised above.

How would you go about testing this application and building its CI/CD?