The interview process begins with a 30-minute call with a recruiter.

The second stage involves a 1-hour live coding session with two problems focusing on data structures and algorithms.

Following this, there is a series of four interview sessions, which can be spread over several days:

• Live coding, similar to the previous round.
• 1 hour of live React coding.
• A system design question.
• An interview about your past experience and values.

If successful, the final stage is a team match, where you meet someone from the team you would be joining.

The interviewers were friendly, and the recruitment team was also helpful and dedicated.

The tests and puzzles were not difficult in themselves. I found the system design session more challenging, but I had never done that before.

I found the process unnecessarily long (May 23rd to July 9th). I am not arguing about the number of stages, but rather the fact that you have to wait a significant amount of time between sessions and for feedback. This creates unnecessary stress, as you don't really know what to expect.

After the first screening, I informed them that I had received an offer from another company (and then a second one) and wished to proceed as quickly as possible, but it took over 10 days to reach the second stage. I was transparent with all three companies because I dislike wasting people's time and managing expectations.

It took another four working days (six calendar days) to receive feedback, whereas Datadog had indicated it would take between one and two working days. This was very embarrassing for me, as I had to ask the other two companies for yet another extension.

I finally received a positive response on a Thursday and had the team match the following day. The recruiter mentioned that at this stage, I had a 99% chance of receiving an offer. Everything went well, and the recruiter even provided feedback on Saturday morning that the offer would be finalized by Tuesday. I was finally relieved, with three offers to choose from.

On Monday, the other two companies asked for an update. Again, I was transparent about my timeline and kept them informed. I explained the situation and that I would likely prefer Datadog. They wished me good luck and stated they could no longer wait, as they had other candidates waiting on their side.

The next day, instead of receiving a contract from Datadog, I received an email stating that the job had "magically disappeared" due to a reorganization, with no alternatives available now or in the future. The email read: "Thank you for your time, effort, and patience throughout the interview process. We genuinely enjoyed getting to know you and wish you the very best in your career."

Ironically, they have 188 vacancies for software engineers on their careers page, and LinkedIn continues to suggest relevant roles for me. The recruiter suggested a call, which I personally felt was pointless, but my wife urged me to seek clarification. I received apologies on behalf of Datadog, but I have still lost three offers and two months. Transparency remains one of their core values.

I like to put things into perspective, and I will likely find a job while many others are unfortunately struggling with war and hunger. However, this remains the most shocking work experience I have ever had, and it comes from a company I haven't even worked for.

PS: My criminal record is clean, and I do not belong to any offensive online communities.

Count the number of word repetitions in a paragraph.

Sum all the values associated with leaf nodes in a tree.

Match a string against a pattern (reimplementing a basic Regexp engine).