I had an initial exploratory screen with a technical recruiter who reached out to me. When I transparently stated my boundaries regarding senior IC leveling to ensure we were aligned, the recruiter became visibly defensive. Instead of navigating the leveling discussion professionally, they expressed frustration, accused me of cutting them off, and suggested I needed to do more homework on the company. I chose to be transparent to avoid wasting either of our time. It’s disappointing to see a recruiting process that penalizes clear, efficient communication from senior talent, especially when other top-tier tech firms handle these exact boundaries seamlessly.

Unexpectedly, the first technical question felt familiar; I had just tackled a similar problem on PracHub while prepping. After that, the interview moved on to an LRU cache implementation, where I had to discuss both the core logic and how to make it thread-safe. The interviewers were engaging and pushed me to think critically about the complexities. The process included a recruiter screen and a final onsite round where we discussed system design aspects. In the end, I received an offer and happily accepted. Overall, it was a challenging but rewarding experience.