The process began with a short recruiter screening call to discuss my background and expectations.

This was followed by an online coding assessment with algorithm and data structure problems.

After that, I had three virtual technical interviews:

• Two focused on problem-solving and system design.
• One on behavioral questions.

The final stage was a panel interview with the engineering manager and senior developers, where they evaluated cultural fit, communication skills, and technical depth.

Overall, it took about three weeks from initial contact to final decision, and communication from the recruiter was prompt and clear throughout.

One standout question during the system design interview was: “Design a URL shortening service similar to Bitly. How would you handle scalability, database schema, and preventing collisions in generated short links?”

They expected me to talk through trade-offs, storage strategies, hashing techniques, and even edge cases like expired or malicious URLs.

The interviewer encouraged me to diagram my ideas and explain why I chose certain technologies over others.

It wasn’t about having a perfect solution, but about demonstrating clear reasoning, understanding constraints, and thinking about long-term maintainability.