I applied on a whim after seeing a job posting and was honestly surprised to get an email from HR a few days later, requesting a time to set up a phone interview. You go to a website to put in your availability, and they respond with a 30-minute meeting request. Pretty straightforward.
After reading lots of reports of being ghosted, I was thinking the same thing happened until I got the call, which was 25 minutes late. There were very basic questions about my work history, and explanations of the company and the interview process. Overall it was very pleasant. Shortly after the call, I got an email stating that the hiring manager wanted to chat the next day. We would mostly be discussing my work experience and what I bring to the table. Fair enough.
I got a call from the manager the next day, pretty much on time. Interestingly, there were only a couple questions about my (lengthy) work experience. There were a number of questions on system composition, design strategies, which I could talk about; but there were a couple under-the-hood type technical questions which I wasn't prepared for and couldn't answer. It felt more like a pop quiz in school than a job interview. After that, we talked about the company, the position, and other things for a total of 45 minutes or so. I thought it went ok, and was told to expect a link to a coding test.
I got the link to the coding test, which turned out to consist of leetcode questions on data structures, algorithms, and some SQL. I thought I did pretty decent on it, but apparently not good enough to continue the process. I got a "regret to inform you" email a few days later, and that was that.
I appreciate that they were direct and moved very quickly through the process, but it really grinds my gears when companies depend on silly puzzle questions to weed people out. Maybe I'm just too old.
If you're considering applying, keep in mind that this company feels a lot like a startup, which it kind of still is. Most of their SEs and management are A) in their early 30s or younger, B) have Engineering/CompSci degrees from top schools, and C) have previous experience at FAANG-type companies. If you don't have those attributes and don't mind working in that environment, then you'd better come prepared to knock their socks off with leetcode and technical genius. I was surprised to get interviewed because I don't fit the typical profile, so hats off to them for thinking outside the box. Had I spent a few months preparing, I'm pretty sure I could have gotten further along in the process.