technical interview with a team lead over the phone home assignment (a day of work) reviewing the home task (1 hour) interview with CTO interview with HR + recommendations an offer

I applied through an employee referral , had a detailed call with hr . an interview with the manager was scheduled for me ( 1 hour) I received positive feedback and was invited for an system design interview with 2 team leaders , which consisted of two questions, one was to tell about big project I was involved, and the second was good design question. Afterwards I was invited to the final step with the VP R&D ( overview of several system design question ). Throughout the process, I found everyone I spoke with to be friendly, thoughtful, intelligent, and very welcoming ! While I ultimately decided to accept an offer from a different company due to my preference for their product, choosing between the two was extremely difficult. I would wholeheartedly recommend at bay to anyone without hesitation.