Very long process. Be advised, apply only if you can dedicate a lot of time to it.

I applied on Jan 20 and got feedback after the 4th step in mid-March.

The first step is a call with the recruiter, nothing to report here, the basic stuff.

The second step is a call with the Development manager, which is all about behavioral questions, e.g., describe a situation where you had to...

The third step is a pretty heavy take-home challenge, where expectations are high, in general. Here is the feedback I received on my challenge, which is a bit too much if you ask me.

Pros

• Good README
• Application behaves as expected
• Look and feel matches design
• Folder structure shows intent
• Functions have tests
• It's keyboard friendly
• Uses TypeScript correctly
• View checkbox matches custom design
• Uses CSS modules
• Consistent CSS naming for classes
• Some semantic HTML
• Email ellipsis implemented
• Good usage of classnames()
• Included some ARIA attributes
• Uses React hooks
• Has e2e tests
• Has unit tests

Cons

• Missing .nvmrc
• Prerequisites are not precise (could work with more versions than specified)
• Description is rather vague, could use more detail on the implementation.
• Library/tooling choices are not explained
• Unnecessary React.memo
• Suspense usage not justified
• Function naming is confusing and doesn't match expectation
• Heading component is too granular and not flexible enough
• HTML is not consistently semantic
• Data is not fetched but bundled
• Card is stretching instead of adapting to content
• UI does not respect mockup fully (weights, sizes)
• No CSS variables for spacing and colors
• Unused function (handleErrors)
• Directory typo "enteties"

The fourth step was pretty intense, and that's where I 'lost' the company's interest in me. I started badly by not answering a live coding/whiteboard question about hoisting the var. I then answered the other questions, but that could still probably be done in a better manner. I stumbled on some CSS stuff, but I was already a bit drained by all the previous stuff that happened prior and said some things rushed.

One thing to keep in mind is that they say at the beginning of the session that this is a pair programming session, but it is by no means that; rather, you are getting challenged on every answer you provide, so be prepared.

I think you can tell if the company is interested in you by the pace they are moving, and candidates like myself are dragged along the process, so be prepared to wait.

This is the feedback I got from the recruiter in the end:

Although they see a good cultural fit in terms of values and motivation, unfortunately, they see some lack of knowledge and experience in core javascript concepts, some gaps in your technical knowledge, contrasted by some deep understanding of some topics, which made for an inconsistent pace and gauging of the different answers. One of the engineers sees you growing from a "Software Engineer I" role here at New Relic, but unfortunately, we only have Senior Software Engineer positions open, since the midlevel position we have opened is almost filled with another candidate.

I must say, it is a fair comment, and I knew I killed the process on the 4th step. To my excuse, I didn't touch vars for a while, haha, and I applied for the Mid role, not Senior.

Verdict: Overall, it's a good way to challenge yourself, but you need to prepare a lot and spend a lot of time on this application. I would suggest applying only if you really like the company and the product, and don't do it if you just need to end up somewhere else. I am happy I gave it a go.

Questions around hoisting, type coercion, context, function arguments object, CSS positioning, etc.