Applied through referral.

• 1 hr technical phone screen asking advanced technical questions, then a DS/algo type question.
• Onsite with 1 behavioral, 1 system design, 1 coding, 1 debugging, 1 DS/algo.

All my interviewers were really nice but not exactly helpful. If you ask anyone who works there what they wish were better about Pinterest, they'll say the "worst" thing about Pinterest is that everyone is too nice, and that prevents growth sometimes. You get a taste of that during the process.

When I was struggling a bit with the prompt for system design and tried to get better direction, the interviewer just smiled and said that I was doing great instead of answering my questions on what I should focus on. It was really hard to get feedback, and it was not a good two-way conversation. I couldn't tell if they were paying attention, honestly. So, if I had to do it again, I'd probably be a little more forceful about what I should focus on instead of rambling aimlessly. Usually, even if I don't do well during these rounds, I learn something, but I didn't really learn anything here. My interviewer didn't make me take anything into consideration.

I felt something similar during the coding rounds – a lot of smiles and assurances but not a lot of feedback. In the end, though, it was just a really tough interview, and I got stuck on the coding round since it was something I wasn't familiar with, similar to coding a game, and that's on me. I wished they were more direct, that's all.

After all that, no feedback was provided by the recruiter – par for the course.