Curai Software Engineer interview questions

TLDR: 3 rounds of interviews: 1 introductory, 2 technicals (1 using React), 3 behavioral The interview process for me consisted of 3 rounds of interviews totaling 6 separate interviews (which is ridiculous for a junior role). The first was a regular meet and greet which was supposed to be with the hiring manager. A last second change lead to it being a different member of the team and not the hiring manager. They asked me basic questions to understand my background and why Curai interested me. They informed me the next steps would be two technical interviews (one of which would be React-based) followed by a meeting with the CTO (which never happened). The recruiter then told me I would have a technical and a system design interview and got those interviews setup. The second interview was a live algorithmic technical task (like LeetCode/HackerRank) with a member of the engineer team but I was allowed to look stuff up as I needed, which was nice. We used CodeSignal for this. Since this was not either React or a system design interview I assumed the next "technical" would be system design. But I was wrong. The third interview was a live front-end technical test using React (again with a member of the engineering team) where I was again allowed to look up whatever I needed. We used CodeSignal again for this. Since I had studied for a system design interview I had not studied for React therefore I was rusty and it showed during this interview. However, I passed and they invited me to the next round of interviews. The recruiter specifically said I had passed the technicals and there would be no more going forward. As a result I assumed they were mistaken about the system design interview and I never ended up getting one. The fourth was a interview meeting with a peer engineer from the product team to discuss stuff. They forgot that they were supposed to interview me and joined 20+ minutes late into our 45 minute interview after I sent an email to the recruiter asking for guidance on what to do since nobody had joined the meeting to interview me. This was completely fine and I did not make a big deal of it even though the individual that joined clearly didn't understand what stage in the interview process I was at and started with telling me that towards the end I would have a technical section despite the recruiter explicitly telling me I was done with the technicals. Whether this was supposed to be the system design or not I am not sure. The fifth was a behavioral meeting with the product manager where he asked questions about my background and goals to make sure my goals lined up with the team's. The sixth was a final meeting with the head of engineering where we recapped the other interviews. This interview was extremely odd as he asked me how my system design interview went (which I never had) and he asked me a follow up question that the product manager was supposed to ask but didn't. I am fairly sure that these two things failed me the interview and this was basically the only one that mattered since the head of engineering would be my boss. Overall the process was extremely long and full of unprofessional behavior. The recruiting lady was very nice and was quick to respond with information and kept everything up to date and ready for me. I had zero issues with her. However, I had an interview get rescheduled two hours before it was to happen (which I had already taken PTO for) and, as I mentioned above, when I was rescheduled with that same individual they forgot about my interview entirely and I had to email the recruiter asking for advice before they joined the meeting. They apologized and it was not a big deal. But I have to point out that nevertheless it is still unprofessional behavior and a bad impression to a potential employee. In addition, they originally told me 2 technical interviews with 1 being system design and 1 being React. Instead I got an algorithmic interview and a React interview. I never received the system design interview. Curai seriously needs to clean up their act and get everybody on board with what happens at what stage. I did not know the first technical would be algorithmic and so studied for a bit of everything. I then expected the next to be system design and therefore didn't study for React. All around a pretty poor experience. The actual questions however were pretty good and didn't require ridiculous LeetCode memorization which I appreciated.

The person managing scheduling the interviews did not have great communication and would change or schedule things pretty last minute. I never heard back after interviewing, even when following up which is disrespectful. I had a great experience with my interviewer, however.