TL;DR: The recruiter prep did not match the actual interview expectations. If you are interviewing for a frontend focused role, do not assume the system design round can focus on frontend application architecture. Prepare for a normal backend system design interview.
This was a Standard process,
Round 1: Talk with recruiter
Round 2: Talk with manager, initial tech interview.
Final Round: Recruiter Prep -> System Design + Behaviorals + Tech Interview -> Recruiter Wrap up
The recruiter prep just lets you know how the interviews are going to go and what they'll be over. I tried to take notes but I was told I would get an email with the notes after we chatted so I stopped. I asked if it was ok to focus on the frontend for the system design portion and I was told "of course".
Unfortunately, I did not receive those prep notes until I reminded the recruiter, and they arrived about 20 minutes into my first final-round interview.
My Sys Design round went very poorly. The interviewers were very confused. I was very confused.
The expectations seemed completely different from what I had been told. I should have been ready for a backend focused interview, yes, but this was primarily a frontend role AND I did state at the start I would be focusing on frontend application architecture. Most of the requirements questions I asked were either not really answered or redirected, and the hints/follow-up questions were almost entirely backend focused. I tried to steer the conversation back toward frontend architecture, so the interview became a confusing back and forth.. Hence the confusion.
During the wrap up the recruiter acknowledged that it sounded frustrating and said she would talk to the hiring manager. She even mentioned that a redo might be possible, though I understood that was unlikely. I should hear back from her in 1 day even though it usually takes 2-3 days.
I followed up after a week, no response.
Another week later (around 12 days total) she emails me saying I didn't get the job. That part was disappointing but understandable. What was more frustrating was that there was no mention of whether the issue had been discussed with the hiring manager, no follow up on the possibility of a redo, and no acknowledgment that I had been given misleading guidance during the process.
I do not blame the recruiter for my performance in the interview; but keep in mind if you are interviewing here for a frontend role, prepare for a backend focused system design interview anyway.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a certain type of website;
Name a time when you had to deal with a certain type of situation
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at New York Times (New York, NY) in Jul 2024
Interview
I don't know why I keep applying to this company. This was the third time I've applied over several years to various departments, and each time I canceled the interview process due to bad experiences or better job offers. This particular interview was similar to my prior interviews, but this one was especially poorly organized.
I had an hour and a half discussion that was broken up into two parts: hiring manager, Staff Engineer & a junior engineer (shadowing), and then the HM left the meeting during the technical part. The HM asked an open ended question about how I would work on a feature. For whatever reason, there was confusion by one of them in regards to my answers and I was interrupted several times to be asked questions I already answered. It was difficult to move forward in the discussion. For the technical part, the coderpad environment was not properly setup, so I was not able to do the problem in my preferred (allowed) language (the language this job works in a large part of the time). They offered almost no help, so I resorted to writing out the problem partly in pseudocode just to complete the task.
After the interview, I reached out to the recruiter and told them I'm not interested, so this is definitely the last time I'm applying. As much as I enjoy reading the NYT, the pay is really low and interview process is joyless.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Give an example of a feature you worked on, and describe the project management side of things, architecture choices, tech stack choices, metrics, etc. The tech round was a very, very easy coding exercise. All you had to do was hit an API, pull back the JSON, filter the data based on a few requirements, then hit a different part of the API with the filter data, and then print out what was returned. It's a nobrainer, but they did not have coderpad properly setup and they didn't know how to resolve it.
Very lengthy. Went through at least 3 interviews, made it to the final round then they ghosted me. I assume I didn't get it but any communication would've been nice. Two interviews, one test.