I applied online. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Headway (NY) in Oct 2024
Interview
The interview process took approximately 5 weeks. I completed all 6 interviews and several conversations with multiple recruiters.
1. Recruiter Screen
2. Live coding (LeetCode Style)
3. System Design for a previous project you have worked on
4. System Design for a well-known product
5. Behavioral (Presentation style where you discuss your career journey in 3 chapters)
6. Live coding (Backend)
I would rate the interview process as medium-hard. I would ignore the other interview reviews as it doesn't appear many made it passed the first or second interview. They are very organized and will provide you with a detailed document of what to expect in each interview after the recruiter screen (If they want to move forward). Expect the interview process to be harder than your average interview process, but not quite FAANG hard. The interview process lands somewhere in the middle. I rate the process as medium-hard as you will likely need to do a lot of preparation for the interviews. The behavioral interviews are not your typical questions, but rather you are expected to lead the interview in more of a presentation style and will be asked behavioral questions within your presentation.
The first three interviews are iterative and you will be told whether you move forward after the interview. The final three interviews are all scheduled at once and will likely be scheduled in the same day. Their goal is to move you through the interview process as quickly as possible and were rather quick to provide me next steps.
If they decide to make an offer, they require reference checks. Reference checks are a requirement, so make certain you contact a few colleagues from your most recent role and ensure they will be able to speak positively about you.
Overall, I had a positive experience interviewing with Headway and fully indented to accept an offer from them. Unfortunately, I did not receive an offer, nor do I know why I did not, as they cannot provide me feedback as they informed me it is confidential.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Behavioral/Situational, System Design, Algorithms & Data Structures, Backend API, LeetCode
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Headway (NY) in Feb 2026
Interview
Pretty typical SE loop: 1. 1 hour code screen. 2. 3 session final loop: coding, system design, and behavioral. Recruiter call after the code screen was very helpful walking through the final loop and the rest of the process. 3. References checks and offer letter. All-in-all took about a month from initial conversation to offer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Go deep on a project you led and discuss for 20 minutes.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Headway (NY) (New York, NY) in Dec 2025
Interview
Technical screen followed by Onsite 3 rounds. Interview guide is completely different from what they are actually evaluating. Design round required typing text only. Not classic design at all. They expect you to drive it but without any meaningful criteria it is impossible to know what direction they expect. Recruiter very responsive.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Implement a fixed window rate limiter. Limit globally and by specific endpoints.
Do not interview here. Current employees should also be wary. I passed the first hour interview and the 3 hours of the panel round. I was informed that I passed the panel round and my references were completed and I was going to have a chat with someone from my new team scheduled. A week after being informed that I passed the final/panel round interview, I was informed that leadership was making changes to headcount and hiring strategy. Why would a company spend so many hours sourcing and interviewing candidates to then change headcount? Perhaps this company is facing financial difficulties and layoffs are coming for current employees as well
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
First coding interview was an interval/schedule problem, final round system design was to design airbnb search, final round coding interview was adding rate limiting to and API they already had the code set up for