Initial phone screen from Human Resources. He followed up after an application 5 years ago or so. He did a quick phone screen and forwarded an overwhelming number of resources to help with the interview process. This included live meetings with Gayle Laakmann McDowell with help on technical interviews. I've never been more prepared by a recruiter and probably never will be again. Ironically, this is one of the cases where I needed it the least. It really just wasn't as technically challenging as interviews at Google or Microsoft. He then followed up and was super flexible on the phone screen which I opted to do in person. It's on the candidates schedule and terms. Very accommodating. During the in-person initial screen, the recruiter again offered tons of preparation and "pep talk." He did say not to rush and to take my time, which is definitely a tendency of mine. Don't listen to that advice, though. My adherence to this advice was ultimately cited as the reason for my rejection (my slow deliberation was interpreted as "struggling"). But otherwise, it was extremely helpful and really great. The interviewer I was scheduled with was out sick so I got another guy. It was the least adversarial interview of the Google/MS/Amazon style I've ever done. He was helpful and supportive. Very laid back (he was wearing sweat pants and a T-shirt) which really helped. I really took my time and avoided going into rush-panic like I do, and was only able to get through one question in the allotted time. I answered it and came up with the solution on my first try (very long and deliberate first try), which even my interviewer said he couldn't do during his interview. But at the end of the day, I was rejected anyway. It showed that it's important not to obsess over the technical preparation. The guy who interviewed me probably was less prepared technically when he interviewed, but he probably did a better job on the soft skills. And he got the job. I worked through on the technical front with no issue, but probably spoke without a sense of confidence and made bad jokes while slowly deliberating through the problem.

The technical round hit me with a classic array manipulation problem: moving zeroes to the end without disrupting the order of non-zero elements. As I tackled it, I felt a wave of familiarity wash over me; I had just practiced a similar challenge on PracHub. The rest of the interview followed a straightforward path, with some easy behavioral questions sprinkled in. Overall, it felt very easy, but I wasn’t quite the right fit for what they needed, so I didn’t receive an offer.