Recruiter outreach turned into a marathon. After the initial steps, I was scheduled for an onsite-style block of back-to-back interviews. I did four rounds in one day with senior engineers, followed by additional conversations about leadership and design.
The day opened with coding and problem solving. For DSA questions, the interviewer cared about how I explained edge cases aloud. In one interval problem, I used a heap, then got a follow-up about minimizing idle time through reassignment. Another round had me build an LRU cache from scratch, including capacity edge cases and thread-safety. The behavioral bar-raiser-style conversation was the hardest: no coding, but detailed STAR follow-ups on what I personally did, the data I used, and what I would change later.
I also designed a parking lot system at the low-level design stage, covering classes, vehicle types, spot allocation, pricing, and a couple of core methods. I was mentally drained by the end. I felt I performed best when I stayed structured, but I did not get an offer. Looking back, I spent a lot of energy being precise, both technically and in how I owned my stories.
Location: Santa Clara, CA. Overall feedback: Negative. Offer status: no offer.
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