The process started when I approached a recruiter I had connected with a year before, asking about the best position for me now.

The first interview with the recruiter was standard, focusing on understanding me, my expectations for a new role, and what Datadog could offer. This was followed by an email containing all the information we discussed regarding teams and preparation.

The second interview was a technical coding interview, featuring two easy/medium questions that resembled real-world use cases more than typical LeetCode problems.

In the next round, I was given a choice: a take-home assignment, showcasing open-source contributions, or another coding interview. I opted for the open-source contributions, which went well.

The subsequent round was the virtual onsite, comprising five different interviews scheduled over three days. These interviews included:

• Another live coding interview, again closely aligned with real-life scenarios rather than LeetCode, around medium difficulty.
• As I was joining an infra team, I also had a Systems interview, where we discussed my current project, covering my use of Kubernetes, Containers, and Cloud.
• A systems design interview, which was straightforward.
• The hiring manager interview, where we reviewed my experience to ensure a strong culture match.
• Lastly, given this was also a Team Lead position, I had a management interview, where we discussed behavioral questions related to my leadership style.

Before and after each round, the recruiter scheduled a meeting to provide preparation materials and discuss feedback, which I greatly appreciated.

Despite the numerous interviews, the process was incredibly smooth. The scheduling coordinator did an excellent job finding suitable times, and everyone I met was friendly. All interviews were fair.

After receiving positive feedback for the onsite round, I was informed that three teams were interested. I agreed to meet with two of them for team matching.

I had a competing offer, and Datadog responded quickly with a very competitive offer, which I accepted.

Why Datadog?

What kind of role I'm looking for:

• Easy/medium coding problems
• A common systems design question
• Questions about Kubernetes, containers, and cloud
• Leadership and behavioral questions