I found the interview process to be extremely disappointing and unprofessional. It’s clear that the interviewers could benefit from additional training in conducting interviews effectively.
I was scheduled for four rounds of interviews: two behavioral, one technical, and one presentation. The behavioral interviews were each only 30 minutes long, which left little time for thorough responses. The technical interview was scheduled for an hour, but my interviewer seemed to believe it was only 45 minutes. Crazy.
The behavioral portion followed Amazon's interview style featuring typical STAR questions. While the questions themselves were straightforward, the interviewers relied heavily on a script, offering little in the way of follow-up questions or genuine engagement to understand my experiences more deeply. It felt as though they were merely going through the motions.
The technical interview was particularly terrible The interviewer had a strong French accent, which made communication challenging. Nonetheless, I was able to tackle a typical system design question. However, as I explained my design and reasoning, he seemed intent on undermining my responses rather than fostering a constructive dialogue. When we transitioned to Kubernetes questions, he complicated the questions significantly, requiring multiple follow-ups for clarification. He was expecting 1-2 word answers but would ask vague convoluted questions. When I asked my clarifying questions he would keep saying, "Maybe I'm not asking this well" His visible frustration at my inquiries was concerning, but I managed to answer all his technical questions.
To my surprise, I hadn’t even completed the presentation portion when my recruiter informed me that they were canceling the last interview based on feedback from the earlier rounds. This experience felt like a significant waste of time.
Overall, the interviewers appeared disengaged and the team seemed disorganized. The technical interviewer needs some serious training on interview etiquette and needs to learn how to be professional. I’m relieved to have dodged this opportunity.