One phone fit assessment which lead to , 2 successive phone technical screens. Very interesting and stimulating conversations in each session. And this lead to 1 day onsite interview consisting of : One session of pair programming. The interviewer was super helpful in coding in languages I am not familiar with, based on my questions and suggested solution. We were working on a real bug/enhancement reported by customer. I thought I had asked all the right questions and implemented the solution. I did ask the interviewer that all the issues reported were addressed and I was given the impression of a yes. One session of technical interview: I got talking for a few minutes longer and had about 40 mins for real problem. The basics of the problem is finding top K values from a data set. I immediately knew it was a heap solution that I needed to implement. In my rush I took longer to determine if it was min-Heap or max-Heap….and then started the implementation. My interviewer was interested in the Heap solution, said he learned something new. I discusses the implementation of Heap as array and as asked for started implementing min-Heap as array and adding extension of top-K. It has been about 20 months since I had implemented Heap as array, so straightening out the jumble of thoughts in my brain and putting it to code did not get finished in remaining time. I am not the kind of developer to be able to implement a min-Heap in arrays and add top-K extension as almost working code in 40 mins. It takes me slightly longer time. One session of cultural fit interview: We spoke about ‘why Gusto’, how I would react to hypothetical scenarios and my professional history. I felt like this was a place I would love slogging for! All the three interviewers were extremely congenial. As a trained engineer I reacted in a binary format: a nod and words of praise meant approval. Until later in the evening I mentally went through the other Glassdoor reviewers’ experiences and realized that the interviewers were congenial by nature, but it in no way guaranteed approval. I was proven right when I was told my candidacy will not go through. In their opinion, I was below their expectations in pair programming and technical interview sessions. Why am I writing this review? I liked their product. I liked what I read about the company, culture, and how they did their product in relation to the customers they serve. All the people I interacted with were super nice. It’s just that I do want to make future interviewers be aware that congenial smile or praise does not mean you have that vote. As is their prerogative, they do make choices based on their hiring philosophy that they know “what makes a person great at Gusto”. I enjoyed the process, and found it worth my time.