The process was exhaustive, involving nine stages of interviews:

• HR
• Technical conversational with the team lead
• Live coding
• Troubleshooting
• System design
• Cultural fit
• Team lead (again)
• SRE Director
• HR (again)

I spoke with more than ten people over several weeks, and all feedback was positive.

I was told that only two candidates made it through all stages. They ultimately selected the other candidate, promising me an offer for a future opening without an interview. It turned out that the other candidate rejected their offer, and they reached out to me.

I had to provide three former colleagues/managers to confirm my CV, which also went smoothly.

I received a verbal offer, but HR informed me that leadership approval was required for the official offer.

Despite the numerous individuals who approved my knowledge and experience, the "leadership"—whom I never spoke with—expressed concerns about my experience. Consequently, I never received the official offer. I requested to speak with whoever had these concerns, but that was not possible.

It's disappointing that the opinions of so many people didn't matter; if "leadership" thought differently, that was the end of it.

I enjoyed the process, however, especially the technical interviews.

To explain the architecture of Kubernetes.