Overall, the recruiting process was very smooth and enjoyable. All the recruiters were very helpful and responsive. I was first contacted by a recruiter via LinkedIn.

I scheduled the phone interview approximately four months after being contacted.

The phone interview was an "onsite" phone interview, meaning I had to use a whiteboard. The interviewer was very friendly and provided small hints when needed. After passing the phone interview, I scheduled the onsite approximately three weeks later. The recruiter provided a lot of good study material for the onsite.

The onsite interview consisted of three coding, one system design, and one behavioral+coding session, with lunch in between. The coding sessions averaged about two questions each. For the behavioral portion, a simpler coding question was asked in the last 10-15 minutes.

The interviewers for the coding sessions had great poker faces, making it impossible to gauge my performance. However, they were helpful, offering small hints and catching minor mistakes when needed. I experienced some communication difficulty with one interviewer due to using different terminology for the same concepts. It's important to ensure your interviewer understands your points and to maintain consistent terminology.

The onsite interview concluded around 3 p.m. Avoid taking bathroom breaks unless absolutely necessary, as they cut into your interview time. Interviewers typically end sessions promptly, even with brief breaks. It's best to use the lunch break or time before the onsite for such needs. They will also shorten the interview to allow for questions in the last 10 minutes.

To finish on time:

• Don't spend too much time deliberating on a solution; write as quickly as possible.
• Aim to have time to walk over and test your solution at the end.
• Start writing solutions high on the whiteboard to avoid running out of space and needing to cramp your work.

A footstool would have been beneficial.

LeetCode questions, e.g., string manipulation, stack, backtracking, DFS/BFS, HashSet, recursion.

Runtime of your solution may be asked.