The interview process took a few months, with many date changes due to internal company issues.

The first "phone screening" was a Zoom call. The question was a LeetCode medium-hard problem involving a matrix-based maze, similar to an island problem, with a dynamic programming trick. I had seen and solved this exact question before. The feedback was that I got 3 out of 4 parts of the solution correct, even though it would be nearly impossible to devise the optimal solution within a 40-minute interview. This was the first red flag.

The second stage included a coding interview and a system design interview. The system design question was highly specific, and I managed to score very well. I solved the coding problem in the second stage, not with the naive solution, but the interviewer feedback stated they wanted another solution, and therefore I did not pass. I did pass the system design portion, which allowed me to proceed to the third stage.

The third stage consisted of two interviews: a coding question and a "design from past work & behavioral" interview.

For the coding question, the interviewer barely spoke. I described my solution and asked if it sounded acceptable. After running it for the first time and finding bugs (as expected), I spoke aloud while fixing them, mentioning that I was stressed, which was slowing me down. Before implementing some changes to address the bugs, I said, "Oh, I think that's it, right? Makes sense to you too, I hope." This level of communication was typical for me in my previous jobs.

I solved the question within the allotted time and asked if they wanted me to add more tests. They instead asked, "How would you make it production-ready?"

The feedback for this interview was that even though I solved the question, I was "too stressed" and "relied heavily on hints." The interviewer had been nearly silent throughout the entire interview. Apparently, they interpreted my descriptions of the solution and comments about having bugs and being stressed as requests for hints and signs of insecurity. They also noted that I "didn't implement more tests," despite me asking if I should implement tests and how they wished to proceed. I intended to test further, but they asked general questions during the remaining 10 minutes.

The last interview covered a past problem and behavioral questions. They stated I was good overall, particularly in behavioral aspects (which seemed to prove the previous coding test was biased, perhaps due to my race?), and I passed. They also mentioned I have good communication skills.

This was a horrible, horrible experience. I've interviewed with other companies where I didn't pass, but I never felt compelled to write a review to warn others.

3 LeetCode questions (they say one is coding from experience, but it isn't)

1 System Design

Design from past work and work situations