Had went through a referral via a current Amex employee. Did the entire loop 5 round (1 HM, 2 Dev, and 2 offshore Devs) and eventually I figured it was decided to promote someone from within the team. Moreover had another Senior engineer round and position just closed the day after I finished my interview round. Most of these interview are just a pipeline process or a backfill positions for assessment, many a times this is just perm application process where interviews are aligned but no actual hires or offers are made to the candidate, eventhough you are confident of your interviews. The feedback from the recruiters are just generic ones suggesting you to keep trying for other position which is not at all helpful.

Was pretty straight forward. Come on as a contractor initially. Then transitioned after two years. More of an on the job interview. The move to employee was seamless, same job, same leader.