I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Samsara
Interview
So I interviewed with Samsara for a role on one of their new product teams. Pretty typical stuff - first call with a recruiter, then a tech screen, followed by an onsite with a few technical rounds. The people who interviewed me were very friendly and I thought the whole process from the first call to the end of the onsite was handled well.
Then came the offer stage. I get an email from the recruiter that the hiring manager wants to chat with me and give me an update. Essentially they say the feedback from the interviews was all positive, they liked me for the company, but they thought I may fit better on another team. Little bit bummed but I get it and I'm open to seeing if there's a good fit on the other team. Here the manager emphasized I wouldn't be evaluated anymore, and from now on it was purely whether or not I wanted to join the other team they had in mind. They set up a call for me with the new hiring manager.
I connect with the new hiring manager later that afternoon, pretty general chat telling me about their team and I give them my history. At the end I ask to meet a couple of the team members first since I haven't spoken to any of them yet. They say of course and will set that up for me early next week.
Next week comes and a few days pass with no contact. I reach out to the initial hiring manager essentially just asking what's going on, they respond apologizing and saying they'll look into it. The next day we connect over the phone and I'm essentially told the other position they had in mind for me was now "closed" (with no other explanation) and that "unfortunately nobody else has headcount" for my perceived level. Then says it's best we cut our losses and that actually there would be no offer.
Treat people better. Don't tell them you want to hire them then proceed to ghost them.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Non-leetcode coding questions. Nice change of pace compared to the usual leetcode stuff.
First a HR call - goes into project details, what you're looking for, etc
Got connected to a Hiring Manager for a project deep dive + TPS round within the hour. TPS question not too difficult - not leetcode.
live coding session, create a md to html translator. It was all live with unique requirements making it more difficult than I expected using regex. The interviewer was not personable and it was a very uncomfortable experience
I made it to the technical screen and didn't proceed further. Recruiter call was the usual experience dive, comp discussion, and why you are looking for a job. The technical screen was a string parsing question.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Technical: String parsing. Be comfortable with regex