Overall, I had a very positive experience. The process was a bit long (a little over a month), but it also included the Easter holiday period in Europe/Montreal. The process was: HR phone screen, hiring manager interview, take-home assignment, technical round, and three virtual onsite rounds (Product, Behavioral, and ML knowledge), followed by the final decision. There was only one coding assessment, in take-home format. The algorithm/design pattern/GitHub parts were quite basic. There was also some web development content (CSS/HTML layout), which was more challenging for me since that is not my primary area. I then had a technical round that focused mostly on past experience rather than the take-home assignment itself. In the virtual onsite rounds, the last ML round covered many ML topics. I prepared a lot and was able to answer many of them, though not all. The interviewer was very helpful and willing to share knowledge, which I appreciated.

The interview process began with a phone call with a recruiter, followed by a Zoom technical interview with the team leader, who asked about my experience. After that, I had two system design interviews, and finally an HR and senior manager interview.

I started with an initial conversation with Recruiter team, where the process was clearly explained to me. After that, I quickly moved to a high-level discussion with the hiring managers about the team’s architecture and specific needs. I was then guided into several technical interview rounds — about four sessions, each lasting around 45 minutes. These included both team members and experienced professionals from outside the team, with diverse backgrounds. Almost every stage included a coding assignment component, as well as high-level discussions and deep dives into relevant parts of my background. The entire process took around four weeks in total: about two weeks for the interview stages to be scheduled and completed, and another two weeks before I received the official result. Throughout the process, interviewers were intelligent, collaborative, and supportive. I enjoyed the experience and gained a clear understanding of what the role involves. The challenges were fair and engaging, without feeling overwhelming. I was very happy with the outcome.