I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Field AI (Irvine, CA) in May 2026
Interview
I literally turned down working with them because after chatting with them it seemed very startup-y I wasn’t looking to do startup life again, but they messaged me back a week after I turned them down to try to convince me to apply anyway. I say why not if they’re that interested?
I tell them I’m full stack but I’m heavily FE specialized. They say that’s fine, that’s exactly what they’re looking for. They then bring me back in for a 4 hour slog just to end with an entirely back end system architecture question. I struggle through because - once again - I’m not a back end specialist and I kept saying I wasn’t. I get turned down purely because I wasn’t strong enough on the back end.
Extremely frustrating to say the least. I was very upfront with my skillset - they were not upfront with what they wanted. I wish them luck in finding whatever it is they’re trying to find, I dont think they know what that is though
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a system in which users can upload a very large file and then process it into an even larger file. They should be able to download it at the end. The system should:
- Serve progress updates (it could take hours so they should be able to leave and come back)
- Be able to serve millions of users simultaneously