I applied online. The process took 3 weeks.

A little impersonal experience since I never had the chance to speak with an HR person (something I felt a little uncommon) so couldn't learn about the position/expectations, despite making it to the Virtual Onsite. Stripe is a company I've always admired, so I went ahead with the process, but it feels a bit bold to assume everyone would go through the entire interview cycle without clear information on the role's specifics or conditions.

The technical interviews themselves were very positive. The engineers were friendly and professional, and the questions felt appropriate, focusing more on realistic, day-to-day programming rather than intricate gotcha puzzles. It felt more like pair programming rather than a test.

I knew I didn't make it since I bombed one of the VO rounds. Got an automated rejection which is better than being ghosted but, again, makes the process feel robotic and the candidate feel not valued after investing 5 hours on technical interviews. I even followed up with the recruiter to ask for feedback to improve in the future, but I never received a response.