I had a brief introduction with a recruiter who seemed interested and discussed the basics of the job with me. It seemed like it might be a fit, and on paper, their compensation packages are FAANG level, so my interest was piqued in continuing the discussion to get a better feel for what it's like. I was told I would have a discussion with an engineer to see if there was a mutual fit before moving forward to real interviews. Sounds great.

The person I met with was very polite; however, he informed me that I would be doing a technical exercise for most of the interview. I'm not pleased with this because I was given no heads-up, during which I could have prepared specifically for it. I wanted to spend this time to even determine if this was a good fit, but I figured, 'Okay, let's try it out.' We spent about 20 minutes chatting back and forth. Some general questions were asked about current projects and ideas for scaling (typical things one would ask a senior candidate), then we got to the code exercise.

It was about a LeetCode medium algorithm problem.

The problem did not represent real-world engineering in relation to the type of position I would have been applying for. Also, and more importantly, I didn't even know if I wanted to apply yet. In regard to this type of algorithm question, I understand the FAANG companies do this. However:

1. They are the FAANG companies and can get away with this.
2. Before those companies even do these algorithm code interviews, they send you study guides and prep materials that outline the fact they will be doing these types of problems.

Having never once encountered this type of problem in the wild in my 14 years of experience (from startups to top competitive tech companies in my area), nor having the luxury of being able to prepare myself, I just brute-forced it. It was not the best, not the worst. It's also worth mentioning that as I was trying to logic through some ideas out loud for the sake of the interview, I was interrupted by the interviewer a few times.

As someone who has been interviewing for big tech for many years, there are general industry standards in regards to what works in assessing candidates.

I know this place looks promising based on the valuation, and they could totally be super successful, but to me, it already has a bunch of red flags.

LeetCode medium algorithms and some discussions around performance.