Phone screen, then invited for an onsite interview.

Three-hour face-to-face meeting with a group of people, from the manager to team members.

First started with real coding, then whiteboard coding.

The process and questions were well organized, and the people were nice.

The questions were well organized. I first started with a coding session on a computer. They asked me about the language and platform I prefer. The question was quite simple and straightforward.

Unfortunately, a text file that opened on the screen looked like a build script, which attracted my attention. I felt I should follow it to build the code, but it was not. I spent some time on it, then gave up and went back to my old way. I didn't have much time left, but I was eventually able to debug and make the code work partially. It was the first time in a long while I had done such a thing, and I was pretty rusty. I also spent time trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. So, overall, the result wasn't perfect.

Then came the whiteboard interview. The air was good, and we started with greetings. I mistook it for a discussion rather than looking for a real solution. I provided several non-optimal solutions and eventually started writing code. I didn't think through the solution properly, so I ran into mistakes. I also showed some fundamental misunderstanding on certain concepts.

On the way back, I thought through the solution and realized the question was quite a match to their daily work. It wasn't my area of expertise, but I should have done better. I was working a full-time job and had worked late the previous night/morning, which could be an excuse to forgive myself.

Overall, the questions were well organized and made a lot of sense for an interview. I should have done better.