The first step was a phone call with the local (and very enthusiastic) recruiter to talk about job details, such as what SoundHound does, why I was interested in the position, and details about the Boulder office.

After that was a phone call with my potential boss, discussing similar things as well as some "get to know you" talk and some open-ended technical questions. It was a very casual and friendly discussion that addressed technical topics in a far more conversational manner than what I was used to in interviews.

Following that, I was asked if I was willing to complete a "take-home coding project" where I would create a program that solves a problem similar to the types of problems I would be solving in the job position. I was given around a week to complete the project and was told that after I submitted the assignment, I would give a short presentation if they liked my solution enough (and they did). I was able to complete the project in just a few days but was still able to take my time and write clean code.

Lastly, I was flown out for a mostly all-day onsite interview. I had lined up an interview with a different company the same week, and they were very accommodating in my travel plans. The day started with the presentation of my project to my potential boss and two other employees I would potentially work with. After the presentation, I was asked several questions about the assignment, such as why I made the design choices I did.

Following the presentation, I had three one-on-one interviews with all the engineers at the presentation. These interviews were a mix of conversation and technical questions in a conventional interview fashion. After the first two interviews, there was a lunch break where I ate lunch with most of the employees working at the Boulder office, which was free of technical questions and was quite casual. Finally, I had a short wrap-up with my potential boss.

Write a program in your language of choice that can remove duplicate images in a directory while preserving backwards compatibility. It should also gather metadata on the images.