One of the most disconnected and unprofessional interview processes I've ever had.

I applied in May, and the process was quick. The first contact was with the recruiter, which was very normal.

Then there was a screening interview. The recruiter said to be prepared for algorithm problems, as they typically are. Instead, the interviewers asked me to implement a simple Web API in Java on my local machine, using a long-polling strategy. Luckily, I had a blank project that I used as my personal playground, which I could adjust to bootstrap the project. If I hadn't, I would have failed the screening for sure, as setting up a web project in Java can be time-consuming, and it's usually not something you do on an everyday basis. Also, I'd read about long-polling but never implemented it before, but I was able to solve the problem with a very simple implementation.

Then I moved on to the remote five-round interview, which I requested to be split over two days. For these, the recruiter sent an email asking me to be prepared to use a Java project on my local machine and Docker, so I was ready for that this time.

DAY 1:

• The first interview was just a product demo, so nothing worth mentioning.
• The second one was an algorithm problem that the interviewer had "prepared" in CodeSignal. The interviewer was distracted during the whole session, and his main method didn't work. I had to spend additional time fixing it to test my code. Although I didn't nail the implementation, I'm pretty sure I presented the optimal algorithm and was capable of solving it.
• The third one was architecture/design. There were two problems, which I didn't feel were particularly challenging. I presented different approaches with pros and cons and justified my decisions. Although there were a couple of things I didn't know, I am pretty sure I didn't say anything stupid.

DAY 2: There was NO day 2. After the first day, the recruiter sent me a voice message saying he was going to cancel the next interviews without any further explanation or comment.

I called him the next day, and he just said I had been rejected. I politely asked for more detailed feedback, but he never reached back.

In retrospect, it's obvious to me that the whole team, including the recruiter, were totally unprepared. They didn't have clear expectations, nor even a good idea on how to conduct the interviews.

Long polling

Algorithms, Data Structures

Architecture & Design