The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Allen Institute (Seattle, WA) in Aug 2020
Interview
one hiring manager call first, and then one technical phone screen. The oniste has 4 or 5 rounds mixed of system design and behavioral, with each round having two staff interviewed me.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a cache system that can recover from sudden shut-off.
I applied online. I interviewed at Allen Institute
Interview
The interview process was extremely slow. The entire process took >4 months. The recruiters are not professional, and ghosting is extremely common in this process. I gave multiple interviews[with the recruiter, hiring manager and then a 6 hour interview with the entire team] only to get ghosted.Looking at the other posts, this seems to be a very common practice here. I was hoping my case would be different since the recruiter spoke to me very nicely and told me she would get back to me by a specific day. I followed up multiple times, and just ended up getting ghosted.
I put an insane amount of effort preparing for the interview, researching the company, they could atleast give me feedback on my interview. They make candidates go through extremely long interviews, schedule them 2-3 months later and end up ghosting them.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Questions about past work, resume, lot of behavioral questions like tell me about a challenge etc. Mainly deep dive into past work experiences and how it relates to the role.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Allen Institute in Jun 2021
Interview
Long time-consuming process with irrelevant and inexperienced interviewers. Highly recommend not to pursue a position with this institute as it will waste your time and they might just want to pick your brain.
They do not have the right resources to interview, and they will use a lot of your time and give you a presentation to prepare for. They will include pretty much everyone in the whole institute, which is super unprofessional. The team is very inexperienced in interviewing and does not even know what they are looking for. In the end it will be YOUR time wasted, so I warn you not to waste your time. There are far better research places in Seattle area.
The interviews have little to do with actual position, but more like IMPRESS US kind of setting. This was mentioned in some other reviews as well, but I fell for it. Overall, the interview process is not directly linked to your performance in the interviews, but rather on your likeliness. It is intimidating, exhausting, and eventually a waste of time. I believe they use these interviews to upskill their own employees.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
System design where the interviewer is out of knowledge of his own domain, and is highly judgmental. Behavioral questions which have nothing to do with the position, that too from an interview who is not even a software engineer.
Coding question that is not even fairly prepared by the interviewers, and they make you stretch even after the problem is solved and interview time has ended. They eat into your break so you cannot even get something to eat or drink.
A simple HR call followed by simple call with manager. No hard questions, but after the interview I was never notified that I didn't receive the position. You'd think that if you took time out of your week to speak to two employees within the company they'd atleast be cordial and let you know. Isn't that the point of working at a company that pays less and has less benefits? They're supposed to treat people better, right?
