Interview process consisted of a recruiter screen, a lengthy coding challenge, followed by two technical panels, with a hiring manager round as the final stage.
The recruiter was professional and communicative throughout the process. The coding challenge and first technical panel were focused on backend engineering, concurrency, design decisions, and code walkthroughs.
The second technical panel was significantly different and focused heavily on fleet-management concepts, including OTA (over-the-air) updates, device security, certificates, Linux/networking considerations, and observability. While I was transparent about my lack of direct fleet-management and OTA experience, these topics became a major part of the evaluation.
The feedback I received was that the team liked my communication style, requirement gathering, and technical approach, but ultimately moved forward with candidates who had stronger Linux, networking, observability, and fleet-management experience.
My recommendation would be to make these requirements more explicit in the job posting and earlier interview stages. Candidates coming from traditional backend engineering backgrounds may interpret the role differently and invest significant time in the process before discovering that deep fleet-management and operational experience are highly valued.
Overall, everyone I interacted with was respectful and professional, and the feedback provided was clear and actionable.