The interview stages are clearly documented, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. If you are a non-native English speaker, be aware that the interviewers (primarily British English speakers in my case) showed very little patience or effort to bridge the communication gap. It felt distinctly unfriendly to international candidates. Furthermore, the MTE interview was highly disappointing for a backend engineering role. The panel was entirely over-indexed on product metrics and PM-style "impact numbers." When I attempted to present actual technical contributions, system architecture diagrams, and concrete engineering proof, the interviewers appeared completely disengaged. Stop replicating over-engineered, FAANG-style interview loops if you aren't willing to value core engineering and building over project management metrics. Give backend engineers room to show their technical depth, and train your interviewers on cross-cultural communication. Finally, it looks like you a have a lot of technical debt if you are so worried about it. Have you ever thought about just addressing it?

The interview process itself was pretty well-managed and thought out. The recruiter was in constant contact with me through the various stages over a few weeks. And the people that interviewed me at each stage were all super friendly and nice. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about the people I spoke to. Cleo made an offer to me at the end of the process and then rescinded it the next day due to 'internal restructuring'. I was lucky enough to have other options. I sincerely hope other candidates did/do too. Of course I am somewhat biased in what I’m about to say. And I'm really not trying to bash the company. But if you are reading this and thinking of applying to Cleo, please make sure you look out for yourself. Keep your options open, especially if you are at offer stage and thinking about dropping out of other processes.