The process consists of five stages:

• Recruiter call: A short introduction where they explain the role and you ask questions. It is low stakes.
• Initial call (1 hour): This is the one to prepare hardest for. They've read your CV and want to go deep on a recent project: how it was built, what trade-offs you made, and what you'd do differently. It's a conversation, not a quiz, but they will probe the technical details. Pick one project you can talk about inside out.
• Coding exercise: Your choice of a take-home or live pair session. The take-home is async in your own IDE, uses any language, and includes a README where you explain your decisions. The live pairing is 45 minutes with an engineer, implementing functions against a provided interface. It's not LeetCode and has no binary trees, just practical work. Both options end in a review call walking through your code.
• Systems design (1 hour): Design a scalable system for a hypothetical problem using Excalidraw. They care about your reasoning, not your diagram. Don't namedrop buzzword tech unless you can defend why, because they will push back. Know your CAP trade-offs and be able to explain your choices from first principles.
• Behavioral (1 hour, two interviewers): This covers communication, how you deliver complex projects, and how you work with a team. Be specific about what you did personally versus what the team did. Use the STAR format and concrete examples.