I applied for a senior frontend position. After an initial phone screen, I did three technical rounds that spanned about five hours over two months. They’re a mix of JS data structure/algorithm and React coding questions. To my knowledge, I solved everything correctly (the unit tests given all passed) except for one about CSS where I ran out of time. Unfortunately, the engineers still felt that I wasn’t at the senior level.

The recruiter asked if I’d instead consider a mid-level full stack role, which is one level down. After a final interview (which I’m told went well), they offered the bottom of the salary range for that lower level. With 10+ years of experience and what seemed like successful technical interviews, going through all of this just to be offered the lowest possible salary was frustrating.

I also learned that this role would essentially be dev, QA, and product all in one, with on-call rotations. This made it feel like even more of a lowball offer, given the responsibilities.

The engineers are mostly nice and helpful during the interviews, but don’t expect them to ask about your own experience or resume until the fifth and final interview, after you’ve passed all three technical rounds. At least the recruiter is friendly and keeps you informed throughout the process.

Timeouts and promises, HoC components, ToDo app, CSS layout, maps, high-level design