I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Highnote (San Francisco, CA) in Apr 2025
Interview
The interview process was structured and engaging. It included two live coding exercises focused on practical, real-world problem solving, followed by a system design round. I also had conversations with team leads to assess mutual fit, a behavioral “Ethos” interview, and a final discussion with the CTO to align on team placement and long-term goals.
The recruiter, Catherine, was very responsive and helpful throughout the entire process, and I genuinely enjoyed the interviews - they felt relevant, thoughtful, and aligned with the kind of work I'd be doing on the job.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
One of the coding rounds involved designing a lightweight transaction processing system, with a focus on input parsing, validation, and modularity. It was a practical problem, close to real-world scenarios.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Highnote
Interview
Initial screening with a recruiter with some basic, non-technical questions.
Next, one-on-one interview with a Highnote Engineer in which you are given a coding assignment and an hour to implement. If you selected to move on, you then expand on that coding assignment with other Highnote engineers. The assignment isn't too difficult. The mistake I made was that I think I over engineered it. Your goal should be first to get it working.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Implement a transaction processor for a virtual bank. Given an input, you will need to parse it, make some account calculations and validations, and test your solution.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Highnote
Interview
The interview process consisted of three rounds, with initially positive feedback. The first was a coding round featuring straightforward real-life coding challenge. The next two were technical rounds focused on my relevant experience—both were easy if you’ve done the work, though the questions were somewhat surface level & raised some concerns about the interviewers' technical proficiency. The final round was supposed to be with the hiring manager, but right before that, they attempted to downlevel the role with no clear explanation, citing vague “company-wide level updates.” This felt misleading and unprofessional, so I declined to proceed. Overall, it was a negative experience, made worse by overall lack of transparency.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Framework specific questions, GCP specific questions
