There are five elimination stages:
(1) initial screening,
(2) live coding,
(3) data project (how you would approach it, which variables you'd use, potential issues, etc.),
(4) conversation with the hiring manager, and
(5) alignment for hiring.
The first stage is a 30-minute initial conversation to get to know the candidate and set the context for the interview. The person leading this step did a great job and guided me perfectly throughout the process.
The second and third stages were combined into a single 3-hour interview. It was extremely exhausting, and the interviewers were unprepared. During the live coding, they confused me more with their proposed solutions than they helped clarify what was actually needed—I got the impression they had never taken that test themselves. In the second part of the same interview, the experience was even worse. The interviewers lacked the depth and understanding to grasp the proposed solutions, requiring me to explain things in layman's terms, which took extra time. There were repetitive questions on topics that had already been explained—such as "how do you build a machine learning model." That’s an overly basic question for the level of the role and had already been answered, leading me to believe they weren’t paying attention.
I did not advance to the fourth stage, which I believe was largely due to limitations on the interviewers' side. While I understand that interviews can be challenging for both parties, the gaps in preparation and understanding made it difficult to properly convey my qualifications. A missed opportunity for both sides.
