The interview process at CO is a three-step process:

• Step 1: Discussion with HR
• Step 2: Coding Challenge (CodeSignal)
• Step 3: Panel Interview with 5 interviewers on various topics

Discussion with HR Right off the bat, I didn't like the HR person I spoke to, but I continued with the interview process regardless. He sounded totally disinterested in the hiring process and was just doing it as a job. I could tell he didn't care if the right candidate was being hired or in being a candidate advocate. This call has nothing much to do with your experience but is just a gateway to the second and third steps.

Coding Challenge I was able to pass the coding challenge with some preparation. There were 4 questions timed at 70 minutes. This was nothing like the preparatory challenge they provided, which consisted of 2 hard questions timed at 5 hours. The 4 questions ranged from easy to hard and could be completed in the allotted time. I was able to complete 3 of the 4.

Panel Interview Three of the five interviewers were nice and genuinely interested in what I had to say. Those three interviews went well and included system design and two behavioral interviews. The fourth interviewer, a Sr. Director, didn't have much interest in the interview. He kept looking out his window and didn't pay much attention to what I had to say. This was the case study round, and the odd thing is, despite your programming language preference, they only offer two choices: Python and Java. My first preference was JavaScript, which was not an option. My second preference was Java, but the interviewer insisted I do the case study in Python because he was more comfortable with it. Anyway, Python is pretty straightforward, and I was able to do the round well. However, the fact that he was so disinterested left doubts in my mind.

The fifth interviewer was a nice person and presented a frontend coding challenge to build an app in React. I was explicitly told by the recruiter (as verified in my notes) that this was going to be an algorithmic coding challenge. Obviously, there was a mismatch, and I wasn't prepared to code in React. I repeatedly told the interviewer about this mismatch. Though he heard what I had to say, he never acknowledged that this could be a mistake on the part of CO and the recruiter. He pressed on, saying, "Let's talk through it, and there's no need to write the code." I was able to talk through it, but he clearly wasn't satisfied and kept insisting how managers at CO must know how to code, despite me repeatedly reminding him that I had cleared the first round coding challenge.

That concluded the panel interview. I emailed the recruiter, thanking him for arranging the interviews and also letting him know of the mismatch regarding the coding challenge interview. I didn't hear back. I followed up a second time, offering to redo the round or do a take-home challenge. I didn't hear back. After a week, I received the automated response that they weren't moving forward with my candidacy. The recruiter completely lacked communication skills and empathy, and I blame him squarely for the poor experience with the interview process and the subsequent outcome.

1. System design
2. Coding challenge - build an app in React
3. Case study: read and correct some code
4. Behavioral questions