So the interview process is very complex and perhaps cumbersome. Three phone interviews and then an on-site interview. The interview process was very professional but definitely lacked efficiency. For example, the interviewer will ask you a series of questions about your skillset and then try to probe deeper to determine your range of knowledge. This is great but they spend a lot of their time typing everything you say over the phone. This can be incredibly annoying because they only give you half of their attention. You have to spend a great deal of time waiting for them to finish typing or repeating yourself. This is not a fair interview process because you also don't know if your answers are being transcribed correctly. Its important for the interviewer to write what you say correctly because they later review your answers with the rest of their engineering team. You would think it would be much more efficient for them and you to have the engineering team there on the phone call -- no typing required, you get their full attention, and the interviewer spends half the amount of time reviewing answers. It's not smart. It's also important to note that they are probably throwing away great talent due to this inefficiency (positions remain open for up to a year!).

In terms of number of people, this is a small startup. Yet, their interview process is very well structured and professional. They take it seriously, and so should applicants trying to join their impressive team. What made this interview such a positive experience is the human aspect. Everyone I spoke to was incredibly nice and fun to speak with (ok, there was one mildly grumpy person, but that's out of the 11 people I interacted with during the process... ). Before interviewing in person, I had two technical interviews and one interview with their CEO. In person, it started with a very pleasant lunch, and continued with a series of challenging yet interesting interviews (with one or two people at a time). Any potential hire would meet with their CTO and CEO on-site, I would assume. They are both very personable and thoughtful. In retrospect, I should have accepted the offer to grab more snack bars on my way out.