To start, I want to say that the communication with the recruiter was wonderful throughout the process. As others have stated, it began with the recruiter screening, followed by a take-home assessment. Then came the power day, and this is where things went downhill.

Four hours straight with absolutely no breaks.

• Round 1: The worst of the four, the design portion. I had prepared extensively for my thoughts on how I would go about answering this part, only to be met with an interviewer who continuously interrupted me. He explained that I hadn’t yet solved for a part of the question as I was literally explaining my solution for that part. He wanted a very specific answer, and any variance was unacceptable. He was rude and, quite frankly, disrespectful. I left Round 1 feeling as though I no longer even wanted to work for this company.
• Round 2: Marginally better by comparison. I had two interviewers who could not seem less interested in being there. They gave me the coding questions, and as I solved them, they were essentially silent. One of the questions asked for an output of the index of two specific numbers, and the interviewer pointed out it was wrong until I explained it was outputting the index as the question stated to do, not the numbers themselves. He then had me modify my answer to output the numbers instead.
• Round 3: This round was a typical behavioral interview, and I mostly enjoyed speaking to my interviewers. At this point, I was positively turned off by this entire experience.
• Round 4: Case study. This portion was odd, though not horrible. My interviewer was nice, but I don’t understand how this part displays engineering abilities at all.

Overall, I’ve experienced far more pleasant and productive interviews. If your power day involves sending out resources to cram and study for so that interviewees can pass, then there’s an issue.

I do not recommend this experience at all, and I do not hope to interview with them in the future.

Design a smart meter system.