The first meeting was scheduled for 90 minutes via Skype with HR. We discussed my role in the current organization, some achievements, salary, areas of interest, job location, and Spotify App/SDKs.

After that, HR asked me 15 questions related to iOS. All of those were very basic questions.

All good. Next, a technical round was scheduled via Hangout with one of the iOS Engineers. At first, I was asked to create/write a project that handles network calls, response handling, parsing, and to display it on a TableView. Once done, we moved to code review. She provided me with a class on which I was asked to provide review remarks. The objective of this interview was to assess my coding style, architecture, and familiarity with APIs.

Then, another Hangout was scheduled with one of the hiring managers to check cultural fit. The discussion with the hiring manager was around scenarios where I had to handle situations based on my professional experience.

After that, my on-site interview was scheduled at their headquarters in Stockholm. The first round was a culture fit session lasting one hour. They asked me similar questions as before, but this time, more detailed answers were expected.

Then, a lunch session was scheduled with four employees. The process was well thought out, as one employee was an iOS Engineer, one had moved to Stockholm a long time ago, one had moved recently, and one was a native Swede. I got all my questions answered. They were very friendly and also gave me a brief office tour.

Later, it was a system design round. I was asked to design a search system. The question had medium difficulty, and we discussed it on the whiteboard.

After that, a "show and tell" was scheduled. I showed them one of my open-source projects, explaining the algorithms related to binary trees and traversal. I was expecting discussions about Big O notation, optimization, etc., but the conversation focused on documentation, interfaces, and ARC. Regardless, it went well. I finished the project in 45 minutes, as well as the on-site interview.

In the end, they informed me to expect a final decision from Spotify within three weeks.

Within a week, I was contacted by one of the HRs over Skype. We decided to have a call later that day to discuss my feedback. At this point, I was excited and expecting positive feedback, as all the rounds had gone really well. Unfortunately, I did not receive a call. I sent him a message but received no reply. I initially thought he might be busy, as HR professionals often are.

I sent him another message after a week, but he never responded. I then decided to stop sending messages and let him take his time. It was clear to me that I was no longer a priority, but I was curious to know the reasons.

Almost two weeks later, the same HR contacted me and asked if I was available for a call. During the call, he told me that they decided not to move forward because my feedback was positive, but at Spotify, they hire a candidate who has achieved 100% positive feedback. He gave me a few negative points, but to me, those did not sound like deal breakers. Whatever the actual reasons might be, I felt a little disappointed with Spotify.

Design a search system.