I applied online. I interviewed at SewerAI (Walnut Creek, CA)
Interview
Initial HR call after which the Hiring Manager round was scheduled in a week. The HR call and Hiring Manager round was moving fast. The HR reached out in 2 days to schedule the next Technical interview. On the day of Technical interview the HR informed they are pausing the interview for 2 weeks and will resume the interviews after 2 weeks. I got a rejection email after 2 weeks saying they are going ahead with another candidate without even proceeding with the interview for me and giving me the shot. My guess is they were just stringing me along to keep as a backup until the other candidate accepted the offer. Very unprofessional and a very bad experience as a candidate. Invested a lot of time and effort which was in vain.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Regular Hiring manager interviews about my experience and skills. Asked about projects and my approach to designing systems
The interview with Sewerai was pretty standard technical interview you would expect from a tech company. The process was also faster than I thought. There were 4 rounds for me. An onsite will be required
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at SewerAI (Walnut Creek, CA) in Feb 2025
Interview
I interviewed with SewerAI between late February and early March. Unfortunately, I experienced a lack of communication and transparency throughout the process, which left a negative impression despite my enthusiasm for the role.
I began with a 30-minute screening call with the hiring manager, which went well. I was then scheduled for a technical interview with a Senior Software Engineer but was given no information on what to expect. I reached out to the recruiter for guidance, but received no response. During the interview, I was asked a number of deep technical questions that were beyond the scope of what I was initially told the role required. I still gave it my best and, based on my performance, was moved forward.
Next, I completed a take-home assessment that fulfilled all the stated requirements. The team appreciated my work, and I was invited to another round where I explained my approach and answered follow-up technical questions. I was told I would hear back within a week. That update never came.
I followed up multiple times with both the recruiter and the engineers I interviewed with but received no response. After over a month of silence, I finally emailed the co-founder. Only after 2–3 follow-ups did I get a reply saying the position had been filled.
This experience was deeply disappointing. As a candidate, I invested time and effort across several rounds, and it was disheartening to be met with such a lack of professionalism and basic communication. It raises concerns about how seriously the organization takes not only the candidate experience but potentially its employees as well. Transparent, respectful communication is a minimum expectation in any hiring process, and I hope SewerAI takes this feedback into account to improve future experiences.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What according to you are your 3 best qualities?
(Follow-up question on take home assessment. A lot of questions were asked throughout, I don't remember everything since I am posting all this after a month.)
What could you do to make it easier to manage a more complex application state as your application grows?
Since you have multiple React components here, what is your general approach to determine which components have state and which components are stateless? Do you have a philosophy in that approach and how do you determine that?