I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks.

1. 30 min call with HR/Recruiter 2. 45 minute online coding assessment in language of choice, 3 questions, first two were quite easy, and the last of which was a trick question with binary where there is an obvious but less performant answer, and then a clever better answer. 3. 1 hour call with hiring manager to discuss role and 3rd assessment question. I did not get the better answer initially, so we just worked through that. 4. I was given a take home system design problem to complete in 24-48 hours. 5. 1 hour call with hiring manager again to discuss my system design solution. Initially I was told this would be two hours long and include more people, but I'm not sure what happened to that.

Afterwards I was told that they might have me talk with someone else on the team but ultimately they ended it there. The interview overall was not that difficult. Most software engineers that are above average in backend engineering will do well. The job opportunity itself seemed pretty good. They have aggressive hiring plans this year, but they are still pretty small right now. Benefits looked worse than my current company, but about average overall, while the quoted salary range was quite good. While the job sounded good, I was very disappointed in the interview process.

I was very clear up front of my skillsets, which are more front end oriented, while the interview tended more towards back end in the later stages. Despite me clearly stating this to the recruiter and hiring manager, the hiring manager still asked me in the fifth (!) round if I was more front end oriented. I was very upset that they did not listen to me in the beginning and I wasted weeks preparing for these interviews when they could have told me up front that they are looking for back end and architecture design skills more. I did not have any indication of this until the 4th round.

Cohere did not have me talk with anyone else, which was concerning to me that I had no idea who the people are I'd be working with besides the hiring manager. The hiring manager seemed like a nice person but he was also somewhat intimidating, and I did not great vibes from him as far as working with him, especially during the system design interview.

Ask a question using binary math properties.