The first question everyone is asking is, what are the questions? Since I have an NDA, I won't say what they are. But I will say if you are reading this on Glassdoor, you know exactly what the questions are.

The screener round was a Systems Design interview. Since I knew the question beforehand and practiced it, it was relatively easy. The interviewer was very sociable, gave me his undivided attention, and was respectful. He saw that my design differed from his expectations, so we worked together to clarify any issues he had. Overall, a great first interview with someone who knows how to interview.

The first onsite (virtual) interview required me to describe a project. Since you're talking about yourself, this was easy. Again, the interviewer was attentive and we bounced ideas off each other. Really cool.

Then there was another System Design interview. Like the first one, I had practiced this before because I knew what it was, but I failed the mind-reading part. My guess is that the interviewer was looking for something specific, and I didn't provide it – there was no flexibility. This was kind of the opposite of the first interviewer. The interviewer was very silent, with no real clarifying questions until the very end. He just wanted me to guess what he wanted. His comments were vague and unhelpful, like "do you have anything else to provide?" And that's the random nature of System Design interviewers; you're at the mercy of whether they are open or closed-minded. I had one of each and obviously failed the interview with the less receptive interviewer.

The final part was the coding interview. It wasn't a LeetCode-style problem; it was more about parsing data and arranging it in some order (being vague here, but the question has been discussed on Glassdoor). I fully admit I made a mistake early on, but the interviewer also made a mistake in a clarifying question. Anyway, I was a little slow, but I passed all three test cases. It wasn't really a test of knowledge or LeetCoding skills; it was more a test of coding fast with someone looking over your shoulder. It was one of those questions where off-by-one errors are prominent, and unless you think in arrays 24/7, you just have to walk through it. The interviewer was at least helpful and sociable. However, I don't know how the question could provide any sort of reliable signal.

I received a rejection. The entire process was alright. I did admire the fact that they respected my time by keeping it short. Part of it was kind of amateurish, though. The recruiter misled me by saying to practice LeetCode-esque problems when it wasn't LeetCode-esque at all (no real need to know Data Structures or Algorithms). Also, instead of spending money on Zoom or WebEx, they used Google Meet (you know, that terrible free one everyone abandoned because it's terrible). So, I experienced technical difficulties and drop-offs even though my Zoom, on the exact same setup, works flawlessly when I work from home.

Anyway, with System Design, it's just guessing what the interviewer exactly wants in a certain piece of the puzzle with no communication. I didn't guess. That's the nature of untrained System Design interviewers. I've been both the interviewer and the interviewee, and I've seen it before. And I think that's what annoyed me the most.

I interviewed for a senior position, and they wanted me to code some array/interval stuff fast. I guess I wasn't fast enough for over-the-shoulder grunt work. If that's what they want, that's what they want. That's not me, unfortunately, as seniors don't do much grunt work.

Overall, they gave problems, and I provided solutions that I know would work. But in the very end, it wasn't the exact solution they wanted. And it's not too shocking. Most everyone I talked to had less than six months of experience there, so they probably weren't properly trained.

It seems they had a deluge of candidates pre-IPO, and since the questions don't change, they can pick and choose whoever guesses right quickly instead of testing off-the-cuff thinking and intrinsic knowledge.

I'm not sure how that will work post-IPO when they aren't the bee's knees and they won't get everyone from Google/Facebook trying to get into a pre-IPO meme stock.

Overall, it was an okay experience – definitely not the best, but not the worst. It sucks to not get a job when you felt you did most everything right.

Because of the NDA, I won't get into the actual questions, but let's just say the exact same questions you see here appeared here.