One of the founders reached out to me on LinkedIn. He said they were looking to hire folks in the Python domain to 100x Auquan's impact. (No need to say that he reached out to me after seeing my resume on my LinkedIn profile).

I was interested, so I asked him to expedite the process. I had an introductory call with him where he asked me about my experience, and he told me about Auquan's vision and goals.

Interview Process: There were 5 Rounds in total.

R1: Take-home assignment. I was given a medium problem to solve within an hour and had to send the answers back to them. It was a must to solve it using Python, and the problem was based on the kind of work they do.
Verdict: I received a call from HR that they would be moving forward.

Next, all interviews were face-to-face (F2F).

R2: It was a problem-solving round. I was given a graph-based problem to solve within a 1-hour timeframe. It was inclined towards being hard. It took me a long time, and the interviewer gave hints to help me figure out the solution. But by the end of the hour, I was able to solve it, and the interviewer was satisfied with the approach and solution.
Verdict: I was moving to the next round.

R3: It was another problem-solving round with a senior employee. The question was again very much related to their problem space, focusing on 2D matrix manipulation. It was more of a medium question. This round went pretty well, and the interviewer was skillful at interviewing and making me feel comfortable.
Verdict: I was moving to the next round.

R4: It was a pairing round with the CTO. The problem statement was a feature to implement and integrate into their codebase. I had to write a few Python functions and integrate them with their codebase. It was around a 2-hour round, and I was able to successfully code the solution. The CTO was satisfied as well.

Then, it was a cultural fit sort of chat with him for about 15 minutes at the end.

You should definitely consider this before joining

I was asked a lot of normal questions, but one was a weird question. He asked me which of the following categories describes me best:
(a) There are people who live to work, and their entire life is their career.
(b) There are people who work just to make a living.
(c) In the middle of both.

I answered (c), explaining my previous roles and my willingness to work longer hours occasionally if the need arises.

But his expectations were for me to be (a) category person. He even said that there will be times when you have already planned a trip or outing, but you need to cancel because of work. Or you will be expected to be available even at odd hours after work. (One could clearly sense he was expecting you to be available 24*7, 365, which I was not ready for.

R5: It was a cultural fit round with the product manager and CEO. Basic situation-based and previous roles questions were asked. I think this round went pretty well.

Final Verdict: I received a call from HR the next day that my technical knowledge is great, but they are looking to fill just one senior position. Thus, they won't be moving forward with me at this moment and might reach out in the future when I have more experience.

Now, if you were hiring for senior roles only, couldn't you have seen that before going through my interview rounds, wasting my time? Also, you should have asked questions for senior roles rather than the kind of questions for 1-2 years of experience roles.

Such a bad experience with AUQUAN.