Bizarre and Frustrating After a successful initial screen, the recruiter informed me the team wanted to move forward and scheduled a 45-minute Zoom interview with the Hiring Manager. I spent time preparing using the extensive guide the recruiter provided. However, at the very beginning of the call, the Hiring Manager explicitly told me that I was not eligible for the position. Despite this, they decided to keep me on the call just to "get to know me." To make matters worse, the Hiring Manager took the time to boastfully mention that they had many applicants from "Apple, Google, and other big companies," which felt incredibly condescending and completely unnecessary. It is incredibly frustrating to invest time preparing for a role that you have already been disqualified for behind the scenes.

A long process, 2 HR interviews, 1 manager interview, 1 coding (leetcode), 1 design, 1 behavioural. The last 3 rounds (coding, design, behavioural) can happen within the same day. The overall process was relatively quick, HRs replying promptly. A coding riddle was a medium complexity, it was related to string processing using a Map. A design round was roughly like "design Uber platform".