Multi-stage interview process:

• Phone screen with the recruiter (who cold-contacted me).
• Online coding interview (via Coderpad).
• Take-home assignment.
• In-person interview: After passing the assignment, I was invited to fly to NY (ticket, hotel, and Uber were all pre-paid/reimbursed) for a series of interviews at the main office.

The interview consisted of four sessions:

• Coding Challenge
• Design Challenge
• Lunch with 2 engineers
• Interview with Director

For both the phone interview and the in-person coding challenge, be prepared for a brainteaser that relies heavily on determining complexity using Big O notation. Then, be prepared to optimize heavily for reduced complexity (I suspect this is why they passed on me). Both the online and in-person coding exercises allowed for your language of choice. While an in-person laptop was an option, the use of a whiteboard was heavily encouraged.

The Director interview was the least positive experience. He spent most of his time staring at his laptop and not really acknowledging the answers I provided to his questions. There are a couple of possible scenarios I see here, all of which would be easily solvable:

1. He was very busy: Cut the interview down to 30 minutes so that he can focus on the interview, prioritizing quality over quantity.
2. They had already decided to pass (or decided mid-interview to pass): Just go ahead and send me home; don't waste my time or theirs.
3. There was a very large issue that had to be taken care of: He could have handed me off to another interviewer.

The engineers I talked to were all very amiable and seemed to have a solid knowledge of the questions they were asking, indicating a standard interview process, which is good.

On the other hand, none of them had seen my resume until they walked into the room, and none had reviewed my submission for the coding assignment (which, in my opinion, was a much better showcase of my work than an on-the-spot coding challenge). Everyone seemed very welcoming, and it was as pleasant an experience as possible, although also very stressful. I am a bit disappointed they passed on me, but my guess is they find enough people who are very successful at the challenges that they can be choosey.

If you get invited to interview, it's probably worth it.

What is something you would have done differently now on your product, with hindsight?