Initially, I went through a screening call with a recruiter. It was followed by five rounds of 45-minute interviews with 7 different people a week later. I spoke with a lead first, then two more interviews with pairs of engineers representing different facets of the team, and lastly two back-to-back technical software interviews.
I had pleasant conversations all throughout, exchanging information on my background, the company, and the problem space that the position was for.
On the first of the two software interviews, the interviewer opened by apologizing that they'd forgotten they had an interview and that they don't normally do the interviews solo. Things went downhill from there. After a brief introduction, we dove straight into a live coding exercise that I hadn't been warned about (because they forgot). Without going into details, the problem itself was not difficult and is of the kind typically administered to recent college grads. The easy solution, however, is terrible from an efficiency standpoint, and was contrary to the theme of the previous interviews. I won't say my performance here was without criticism, but the experience left a lot to be desired. The final interview went as the others did.
Unsurprisingly, I was not extended an offer, and was notified solely with a form rejection letter--another area that could use improvement. There are good people working at BlackSky, but their interviewing process could definitely use some tweaks.
