I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I had a good time interviewing for a remote position, which was stated multiple times to be 100% remote. It was mostly a good process. They were good at giving feedback. The whole process looked like:

• Recruiter screening: ~30 mins
• Hiring Manager: ~30 mins
• Take home technical exam: ~2 hours
• Feedback on exam: ~45 mins
• Prep for onsite with recruiter: ~30 mins
• Onsite Interviews: ~5 hours
• Recruiter rejection: ~15 mins

Total: 9.5 hours. The onsite was grueling, and some of the interviewers seemed fairly uninterested. At the end of 8 hours of interviews and technical exams over 2 weeks, they pulled a bait and switch, stating they didn't believe I would be a good fit for remote work. Please be wary of this while interviewing. The rejection call was sympathetic. The feedback was genuinely helpful for the future, but I would have preferred an email. As cold as it seems, I was managing expectations for an offer, as very few companies detail rejection over a call. It was difficult and unpleasant, and I narrowed in on the feedback being weird to hear when the interviewer had stated the opposite. Not all of mine were great at signaling or asking for more information directly, often telling me "not to worry about" this or that detail, then reflecting it poorly in feedback. It was a pretty uncomfortable experience, and I never felt like I was able to satisfy the interviewers. They have a strong streak of giving "direct feedback", and I'm not sure it reflects their values as they hoped. Often it felt like they were looking for things to fault. That said, I had excellent conversations with the hiring manager and a couple of the interviewers. They were witty, interesting, and extremely knowledgeable. The mission at Zipline clearly drives their engineers, and it's very admirable.

The questions were pretty typical, but very open-ended. After getting feedback, I realized most of them were meant to be "gotchas". There was 1 answer.