Applied for a cloud engineer position directly on the website.

One week later, I was contacted, and we went over the role. I asked some questions, and then the interview process was outlined.

I performed the Codility assessment within that week. It was one hour relating to containerization and AWS services. Quite easy overall.

It is said that this is a newly introduced step, and isn't necessarily for disqualification but to understand your level of competence (and later your potential level within the company). You get immediate feedback on your score, so that is good.

After that, two rounds were scheduled. A behavioral screen for 30 minutes, followed by the tech screen for 45 minutes. Both interviewers are on the East Coast, so the call was taken earlier (I'm based Pacific).

The first interviewer was senior level but asked super easy questions in a casual format. They seemed to gauge your ability to articulate rather than competence. Their internet connection cut out during the call for about four minutes, which was strange.

The second interviewer was also senior level and asked about my background, then went over my Codility assessment scores to discuss some tech there. Later, more tech questions were asked related to the position, and then I got to ask questions as well. The interviewer seemed down to earth but also very competent. I enjoyed discussing the role with them.

Here's the fun part... After finishing all rounds, I was told by the recruiter (his initials are K.S.) that I passed the tech round and that I'd be able to go up a level for the role (based on my experience). But they were looking for feedback from the first behavioral interviewer, and they could not get in contact with him. That was for the easiest part of the interview, and they could not find a way to get feedback?! Anyway, I asked if he had quit or gone on vacation, but the answer was no.

I had to refresh the recruiter's memory a week later (you must be proactive, or else they leave you hanging) about the interview. Then, a second time a month later. At this point, the story had changed, and they were not sure if they needed to fill the role due to economic forecasts (June, July 2022).

The recruiter then said that since I passed the tech round but they never gathered behavioral feedback, next time a similar position opens, I would be able to just take one behavioral round.

I honestly don't know what to say about this because I had declined another offer earlier based on word of mouth from the recruiter (hoping that the feedback would only take one week). I also read that Deloitte can take up to eight weeks to get back in touch with candidates, but it is well past that mark, and I have not heard anything.

Docker, K8S, common AWS services.

Introduce yourself.

What is your experience with X, Y, Z?

How do you handle team conflicts?

No algorithms.