I had a telephonic interview with Linkedin, introduction and codepad coding 1 hr. The question was from LC https://leetcode.com/problems/evaluate-reverse-polish-notation/.

The interview was supposed to happen with one coding and leadership question, I completed the coding with all test cases in 20 - 25 min and including inroduction and candidate question session the interviewer ended interview within 40 mins without asking any leadership questions. Inteviewers seems to be very happy with my solution and experience and I didn't see any red flag during interview. After couple of days recruiter reached out to me and said they can consider me for SSWE not Staff Software Engineer. It seems interviewer was a crap and didn't like that a younger was having same knowledge compare to what he was working on from last 18 years, not sure the internal drama or politics at linkedin but I totally agree with this post https://leetcode.com/discuss/interview-question/1781759/linkedin-phone/1277936
I have declined their offer.

My recommendation is same as above post study LC tagged ones and go for always one position higher, they will push the position always down

Exp 12+
Current company - FAANG