I am working at one of the FAANG companies and talking to various companies in the Valley. The interview process with Databricks was the worst experience I've had so far.

1. The whole process took more than three months. I went through a recruiter chat, phone interview, hiring manager chat, another hiring manager chat, recruiter chat, a one-day virtual onsite, a take-home assignment, and colleague references. Yes, Databricks is a startup that is growing fast, but think twice about whether it is worth your time. There are many other good companies that are also hiring. Do not waste time with them!

2. The recruiters were very unprofessional. My interactions with the interviewers were good, but the recruiters were very unprofessional. They did not answer any questions and just replied with email templates. I was checking for other roles' responsibilities, but the recruiter thought I was only fit for the role they were hiring for.

I asked for feedback about the phone interview but never received a response until one month later, with a "move forward" template. Since I also had other pending offers, I would like to get the final result sooner, but again, my email never got a reply until three weeks later.

1. The hiring bar is unclear. All the feedback from the interviews was good, but at last, they decided not to move forward because my background did not match. I do not know if they are not hiring or if they have a very high bar, but if you find that a candidate does not match, please do not waste their time at the beginning.

Medium LeetCode questions

System design

Coding using an assembly language

Take-home assignment