I submitted my resume in February 2011 and was contacted in November 2011 by the hiring manager, who asked if I was still interested. The timeline was as follows:

Mid-November: A 45-minute technical phone screen, which consisted mostly of Java questions and discussions about past work experience.

Late November: A 30-minute interview with the recruiter. Questions included "What are your five strengths?" and "What do you think it means to work in a startup?" Since I did not have startup experience, I assured her I thought I could be successful and was ready to work in a fast-paced startup environment.

Early December: The hiring manager contacted me and said they were still bringing in other candidates and would see how that went.

Early January: I was contacted by the hiring manager for another phone call. He reiterated concerns about the fast-paced startup environment and how it might apply to me. I again reassured him that I knew what I would be getting into.

Late January: I went in for an on-site interview from midday, which proceeded as follows:

• An hour-long, relaxed lunch with some members of the team.
• A 45-minute interview with the VP of Engineering. (Make sure to remember the names of the people you went out to lunch with and the name of the restaurant.)
• A 45-minute interview with the hiring manager, which mainly focused on soft skills.
• A 45-minute interview with the senior architect. I was required to find errors in a page of Java code, whiteboard a design from my previous work, solve a puzzle, and answer some more Java questions.
• A 45-minute interview with a senior engineer. He wasn't very prepared, as he was filling in for another interviewer who didn't have time. He asked about previous experience, object modeling, and some SQL questions.
• A 15-minute interview with the recruiter, who went over the benefits, etc.

That evening, I was contacted by the hiring manager, who stated they needed to check references before making any decisions. I sent the references that night.

Early February: The hiring manager called and said that the references were all good, but from the beginning, their concern was that I didn't have startup experience. Therefore, they could not take the risk of hiring me.

What most surprised me is that it took interviews spanning over two months to come to their final decision, based on the very concern they had from the start of the interview process.

Overall, the environment seemed collaborative, with hard work but also fun. I was told to expect 50-60 hour work weeks.

What design pattern is used to implement a SynchronizedHashMap?

How is a Java HashMap actually implemented?

java String foo = "abc"; String foo1 = "abc";

What does (foo == foo1) evaluate to?