The interview process was tediously long. It started with a recruiter phone call, which led to setting up the first system design interview. The actual interview was okay.

Weeks passed by, and I didn't hear from the recruiter about any feedback. Almost a month later, the recruiter called me back and said he would like to set up the final round of interviews. Then I was handed over to another recruiter, and it took another three-plus weeks to finalize the final interview call.

The final round was five hours long and consisted of:

• Two coding rounds
• One system design
• One values
• One technical discussion with the hiring manager

The real challenges started here.

The system design was around API creation and then data modeling. All questions asked by the interviewer were answered.

Then came the code design. I was asked to code on the HackerRank code pad, and I provided the solution. The question was a typical one with a slight variation. My solution had a Java library import that was not supported on the HackerRank code pad. However, I was marked negatively because the code didn't run. It shows how mechanical these things are; they will not look at your solution or why the code didn't compile due to the limitations of the provided environment.

Then came the data structure round with some loosely formed questions. The interviewer was not interested in any solution provided (after I offered multiple alternatives with efficiency in mind), but was only keen to hear the solution he probably had in his mind.

Then the interviewer started to give me life lessons on how it's okay to have a bad day, how I should prepare in the future for interviews like these, how the interviewer had gone through different phases in life, and how the interviewer didn't complete his PhD but should have, all in the middle of the interview.

Next, the values interview started. This was a sane and conversational round out of all five.

Then came the hiring manager, where he asked a series of formulated questions geared towards situational behavior. He asked if I had made any infrastructure changes or decisions in the company I currently work at. I work at a Fortune 5 company where it takes years for an infrastructure change to come about, and those decisions are not within an engineer's control. But alas.

I got feedback that was baffling:

• System design wanted fewer APIs and fewer clarifying questions? (Usually, people reject candidates if they assume and don't ask questions.)
• In code design: I was wrong because HackerRank didn't support me using Pair in Java.
• In data structure: I didn't provide the solution which was in the interviewer's mind. Please keep an open mindset, people; there can be alternatives to a problem that differ from a single set answer in your mind.

Typical DS and Algo questions tagged for this company.