Do not trust the recruiter ...
TL;DR ...
The screening interview was swift. The recruiter was 15 minutes late and asked only one question to validate that I had one of the expected experience. There was no qualification of how much I knew about it. The first loop consisted in a behavioral interview with the hiring manager as well as a system design interview. The recruiter communicated the topic that will be analyzed in the design interview - a highly technical topic - as well as the name of the interviewers. I studying intensely to be prepared. I validated that the name of the interviewers three days before the interview. The recruiter confirmed them. Nevertheless, the design interview was on a different topic, not relevant to the field I was applying for. This is nonchalant from the recruiter. As a takeaway for other candidate as engineering managers, out of caution, I would suggest to prepare not only on your subject matter, but also on "generic" system design. Do not trust what the recruiter says. It would be better they say nothing rather than guide in the wrong direction.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A design question for a hardware-software system. The interviewer kept it generic, which added to the difficulty of the interview. I had to (1) switch from an end-to-end system design (EM level) to a low-level system design, (2) account for the super generic question while giving enough technical trade-offs, (3) not lose time time building a make-believe scenario as the interviewer was not looking for spec collection but rather a generic deep-dive.
Initial telephone call with a recruiter, followed by 2 zoom interview (system design + behavioral), followed with 5 zoom interviews (system design, behavioral and AI-coding-assistance). Process and recruiter were very transparent, supportive and well structured.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
System design question + to tell and explain situations from previous experience
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Meta
Interview
Standard 2 interview screening + 5 interview if you pass the screening. You can prepare for the interview by looking up resources online - Meta has a fairly consistent process.
The only reason for me writing this report is that despite the recruiters' professionalism throughout, it was quite galling that after a long process and even after "passing" the hiring bar, I was told they were going to pause the role (though my 'pass' is good for 12 months). I'll post an update if I have one.
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