I applied for the FDSE and the process took just under 3 months. Process ====== 1st round : HR screening: Trying to see why you're interested in the role and company 2nd round: online VC with another engineer, solving a problem using Hackerrank. 3rd round: 3 x face-to-face interviews in New York 3a: technical coding test 3b: decomp problem 3c: algorithmic challenge 3d: Lunch with another engineer (to assess if you are socially awkward), followed by a product presentation 4th round: on-site interviews 4a: decomp / system design 4b: behavioral questions 4c: interview with hiring manager 5: phone interview with one of the founders Observations ========== - people are really friendly, and all the people I met were very good to deal with - these people are very smart - company looks after staff with many office perks, as indicated in other posts - it's true, the offices are set out so you don't need to go home. RBTL. - everyone I met is under 30, majority would be around 27 Experience ========= After 4b I was due to have lunch with the team and then proceed to meet the hiring manager. I was then shown around the office briefly, where the hiring manager saw me for the first time. He said "hello" and turned around to continue filling his lunch plate. He didn't even bother to say anything further or even smile; a parallel situation would be like seeing an ex-partner in a lift, it was really odd. I was told to come back later that afternoon to meet the hiring manager for the next interview. I went out to get my own lunch and returned at the specified time, this is where things went wrong IMO. When I came back the hiring manager had apparently gone home sick, so I was interviewed by another guy and given a coding test (which I solved). I found that really odd given the whole point of these interviews was for cultural and team fit. After a week I received feedback that they didn't see me as a suitable FDSE but instead as a Deployment Strategist. I was then told that I'd have to go through the ENTIRE process again. I declined. Post interview observations ====================== - I reckon the hiring manager (who was about 28) declined to interview me because of my age. The reason I'm guessing would be that at my life stage I'd be expected to have children and couldn't commit more than 12 hours per day. I do have children and wouldn't do 12+ hours/day for extended periods anyway - although all the people I met were friendly, none appeared to be the type to have children / commitments outside work - all the people that I asked indicated that they work in very, very hard (read: long hours). One even started that he doesn't really sleep that much anyway - once things start to deviate from what HR tell you to expect you can take that as a rejection Recommendations =============== - don't bother applying if you are over 30, have children, have a partner that does not work there, have activities outside of work - they stock the office so you don't need to leave. Everything from shaving cream to all your food needs to shoe polish is there - this place would be good for someone with no more than 5 years experience - there are better companies out there that pay better (if not more) and would not be too intrusive on your life - they have some good software, but there is not much you can gain as a FDSE that would be transferable to another company. Hence my recommendation that it's only suitable to recent graduates. For seasoned professionals this would drain you of your technical skills pretty quickly. That was implied by one of the engineers who said that he's spent months writing perl scripts to parse incomplete xml files