I was contacted by HR on LinkedIn and invited to Seattle office for preliminary round of interview. Preliminary round was one and hour interview. Interviewer has good experience and started off with my project discussion. Then asked question related to encryption. I was able to solve the problem and write bug free code. I enjoyed the preliminary round. Few days later HR contacted me and invited me for on-site interview. HBO's onsite interview is one of a kind. They start off with a panel of engineers grilling you about all kinds of stuff. Then the panel will split up and one engineer at time will interview you after that. I kind of enjoyed it. However, I didn't feel that panel was welcoming. Most of them were serious and act like nerds and trying to prove me wrong. Seems like most of the engineers are senior staff engineers and they are from Microsoft (at least the panel interviewed me). Also, each interviewer discusses the feedback with next engineer and hiring manager immediately after the interview and they make instant decision. Not sure that's good idea though. Because, next interviewer might be biased toward the pervious interviewer's feedback (after all that's human nature). Anyway, panel grilled me on multiple things, then couple of engineers had 1:1 interview with me after that. Questions are not that hard, but they are going to take time to solve. One of the engineer was damn serious and all he wants to do was prove me wrong. I was rejected after couple of 1:1 interviews. At the end, I felt interview of tough and difficult to crack. Also, it's a lot pressure because if haven't done well in one interview, feedback is passed to next interviewers immediately.

Informational phone screen with HR, then tech screen with an Engineer in person. Both were really amazing and helpful, I feel like I learned a lot about the process. They answered everything very thoughtfully and gave me really important feedback. Despite not getting an offer, I had a wonderful time and would definitely like to work there someday. I plan on apply again once I have some more experience.