The stages prior to the on-site were conducted well. However, my negative rating is because of how the on-site was conducted. My interviewers seemed highly inexperienced. They didn't introduce themselves and tended to start the interview by just stating questions. One interviewer in particular was condescending from the very beginning, and refused to give any clarification when I asked specific questions about what kinds of users product was interested in. Another asked a follow-up question that would have made it totally pointless to address the problem with their preferred approach. It often felt like despite the open-endedness of the questions, I was expected to give a single, predetermined answer decided by the interviewer. This made it difficult to build upon my initial work because the interviewer often expected a totally different approach. The structure of the interview itself was an initial recruiting call, then phone technical screener, then recruiter prep call, then virtual on-site. The whole process took about three months, plus another two weeks to get the result due to the hiring freeze. Despite the fact that the recruiter told me I would receive feedback after my interview loop, I received a generic rejection email with no such feedback.

In the technical round, I faced a challenging A/B testing question regarding YouTube thumbnails that pushed my analytical skills. I was also asked to discuss metrics for evaluating user engagement, which had me thinking on my feet. The behavioral section was tough, but I found the principles I studied on PracHub to be incredibly relevant. The overall experience was intense and demanding, yet I received an offer in the end. Ultimately, I decided to decline, as I felt it wasn't the right fit for my career goals.