The interview itself was five hours long! They didn't want to phone screen me first.

Leading up to the interview was another story entirely. I think they really drive their recruiters hard, to the point where it's unattractive to an interviewee. Here's what I mean:

First, a recruiter gave me an unsolicited call. I said I might be interested and asked him to set me up with a phone screen with Groupon. He set me up, and only afterward let me know that this phone screen wasn't something I could do on my cell phone; it was a one-hour interview requiring a screen share. I said I needed to pass for now but suggested we keep in touch.

Two days later, a second recruiter called. He said he was taking over the first recruiter's accounts and was my new point of contact. He was based in California, the job was in Chicago, and he didn't seem to know much about the location or any details that I was actually interested in. I told him I wasn't interested in interviewing in the next month and, as I was driving, couldn't look at my calendar. He continued to pressure me for twenty minutes until I finally relented and said I might be able to do an interview in a week. He signed me up as a solid yes. I tried to call him back the next few days to tell him I had a conflict, but he didn't respond. Eventually, I received a call from Groupon the day before that interview to iron out the details. I told them I still didn't want to do the interview and (diplomatically) stated that there was something wrong with their interview chain of command. They were finally able to process that information.

A couple of days later, I actually did set up an interview with a Groupon recruiter who actually worked for Groupon. Again, they were interested in getting me in there ASAP, basically the first thing in the morning after I finished my current job. Then it was an all-day affair, five hours with various people.

They come on really hard with the recruiting process. It made me wonder why they have to do that – are they losing developers left and right? My skills aren't super amazing, but they really wouldn't let me pause for a minute with this process.

How to find 'islands' of 1s in a 2x2 grid of 1s and zeroes.