There were 4 rounds.
Round 1: System Design & Small Coding question
Round 2: Problem Solving & Resume deep dive
Round 3: Client Round, after 9 days of clearning round 2, I was scheduled to do a client round. They only hire if client round is cleared.
Round 4: CEO Round
Overall process went faily smoothly and fast. But I started seeing red flags as soon as I accepted the offer. In the offer letter they didn't mention any policies or conditions. It was plain and simple offer letter with only benefits mentioned. I was very happy with the simplicity and everything. Company seemed to have good glassdoor rating and culture. On joining day evening, they sent a separate appointment letter which had all the policies. Looking at those policies, my sould left my body. What did I just do to myself? Where have I come? They had many different clauses where they put severe penalties on a very small perceived infringement. One clause was, if I "contact" any other Velotio employee, to convice them against working at Velotio, it could lead to penalty of 24 months of salary. What? It was highly subjective and if any employee interpretes my conversation where I jokingly criticized anything about the company, they could interpret it as infringement and fine me 24 months of salary.
There were many other such clauses. After finding this appointment letter, I ran, I ran as far as I could. I didn't even ask them for the salary for days they wasted after joining because I raised these concerns and only reply I got after 3 days was that they can't do anything. Either you sign or leave because everyone else signs these policies.
- Second thing they had in the policy was that if I choose to leave the company within first 2 months, if I didn't like the company culture or for any other problem, I would have to pay 2 months salary to the company as penalty. Wow. Just amazing. But they reserved the right to fire me during the 3 months probation.
- Thirdly, they had 2 months notice period, which could be extended indefinitely if they didn't find the quality of handover good enough. Once you get in, you can't get out.
I am not sure if it is even legal to put employees through that. Anyway, horrifying experience.
Besides these policies, I found the company culture and benefits very good. Clients which I was supposed to be assigned also seemed very good. Read the policies before you sign the appointment letter because these kinda predatory policies can be used to blackmail employees.