1-hour phone interview with the team leader. Classic format, first he introduced himself, talked briefly about the firm and explained the role and what they were looking for. We then moved on to the questions, which were around FIX protocol, troubleshooting, task prioritisation and some basic Linux and networking . He conducted the interview very well and left a good impression on me.
I passed the interview and was asked to come to a face to face interview in the office. At that time I was living in mainland Europe and they refused to pay any flight tickets, I offered to do a video call instead, but they insisted it had to be physically in their offices. I then decided to withdraw my application, as I didn't want to be in a company that is unable to afford to pay flight tickets to potential promising candidates and that refused a video call which I thought it was a perfectly valid alternative (2020 pandemic proved I was right).
In the end, I am happy I did that, I made the right decision; I ended up joining a more prestigious firm, that not only paid for my tickets for face-to-face interviews without me having to ask, but they also paid for accommodation in a nice hotel every time I had to come for interviews.
