I applied online.

1. Hiring Manager Round – Initial conversation focused on past experience, backend engineering projects, problem-solving approach, and alignment with the team’s needs. The discussion was conversational and centered around real-world systems, technical decisions, and challenges faced in production environments.

2. Technical Take-Home Interview – A practical coding assignment designed around realistic backend engineering scenarios. The exercise evaluated code quality, problem-solving, system thinking, and the ability to build maintainable solutions rather than focusing purely on algorithms.

3. Technical Interview – Interactive technical discussion involving backend system design, production engineering concepts, and collaborative coding exercises. The interview focused on practical problem-solving, communication, and the ability to reason through tradeoffs and implementation decisions in real-world scenarios.

Overall, the interview experience was good and the team was professional throughout the process, though the role itself did not fully align with my background and prior experience.