I applied for two different Principal Software Engineer roles. A week or so later, a recruiter set up a phone screen, which was a typical initial screen. I then got handed off to another recruiter to set up a time for the next round. I asked if I was still in consideration for the other role I applied to, but got no response.

Next round was with the hiring manager, where we talked about my background, the position, etc. Again, pretty typical.

Recruiter #2 reached out again (CC'ing Recruiter #1) to set up a time for round 3. I once again asked if I was still under consideration for the other role, and what this next round interview would be about. Again, no response to either question.

Turns out the next round was a system design round with one of CVS' "architects" who's been at the company forever. OK, totally wasn't prepared for that, but let's go!

He asked me to design Twitter (seriously? we're still doing this in 2024?). I started designing what a hypothetical API would look like and the basic components involved (API, DB, job processing, etc). I didn't get 1 minute into it, and he started interrupting me, saying he was looking for more "lower level" components at the network level.

After some back and forth trying to clarify what he meant, he started talking about "gateways". Well, he said "network level," so I'm thinking, "is this guy asking me to design things like the internet gateway configurations for a VPC in AWS"?

He wouldn't give me more info, but after I dragged it out of him, it turns out he's talking about API Gateways. Ok, that's not what I'd call the "network level," but yeah, I was going to get to the API Gateway if you didn't interrupt me 1 minute into sketching this thing out.

Then he got all wrapped around the wheel about using CDNs and why my solution didn't use a CDN. Again, I would have gotten there if you gave me more than 1 minute to come up with the design!

This guy was so rude and kept interrupting me every 30 seconds that at this point I was frustrated and turned off, and I didn't want the job anymore anyways. No way would I want to work with someone like this who's going to ivory tower every little thing (and a terrible communicator at that).

Needless to say, a few weeks later, I got an automated email that they wouldn't be moving further with me. Fingers crossed for that other role I applied for! (not)

System design to design a Twitter clone. facepalm