Probably the worst experiece I ever had and will ever have, I have anxiety and interviews in general are stressful. I want to explicitly talk about my System design round which was taken by this inexperienced lead engineer. This person(since I dont know their pronouns Im referring as "person") was condescending and very rude throughout the interview. Since I have taken many system design interviews and coached engineers to be interviewers, I tried my best to navigate through the inexperienced interviewer. "Its your design,do what you want" "Which part of the question you did not understand" - this was the tone of the interview, None of this helped me in having a check on my anxiety.
System design interviews are tricky and definetely needs a dialogue more than other interviews. The interviewer was unwilling to participate in the conversation inspite of me trying really hard. At the end of the interview, I was told "I know it was intense but you did very well".
Since my other rounds of interviews were pleasant and I even had a very supportive interviewer in one of the rounds, who understood my anxiety issues, I did not want to make a big deal of this System design interview. The recruiter was the nicest as well. Helped with all process details and was very diligent.
I thought I'm going to get an offer, given I did well in all the rounds. But to my surprise, I lost the offer due to (and only ) system design round. The feedback I received said that I had no technical background what so ever and I have never been involved in a project. I am definetely not a fit for this role. The feedback also said "once the person exhausted all the technical words they are aware of, the nerves started kicking in". I see zero empathy in this feedback. Anxiety is a real cripling issue many of us deal with. What broke me was, this person judged my entire decades of work experience in 45 mins and gave the nastiest feedback. It took me months to gain back my confidence and I'm still working through it in my therapy. My only request to Sony is not to put such inexpericed engineers on interview panel and lose your own reputation. And to the intervierwer all I want to say is don't abuse the power you have as an interviewer. Have an ounce of empathy. You have been on the other side and will be on the other side :)
And lastly to people who want to give this company a chance, be prepared for such experiences. And do not take the feedback personally. The right role in a nurturing environment is definitely waiting for you.
Given the rest of the interview process was pleasant, I'm really hoping this is a one off.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Questions are not very complex. Basic programming questions for coding round.
