This was one of the best interview experiences I've had. Every step along the way, I encountered nothing but kind, empathetic, and thoughtful interviewers, from my initial HR screen to "onsite" interviews (remote, due to COVID). I was quite pleasantly surprised by this as I was a bit apprehensive after reading some of the past employee reviews (mostly pre-2020, as 2020 onward looked overall more positive). The interview process consisted of three major steps: 1) Screening: a couple of Google Meet calls, with a recruiter and then the hiring manager. These involved mostly questions regarding my experience, but the the hiring manager interview leaned a bit more technical in nature. None of these would qualify as a "technical interview" though. In general I found the questions easy to answer because they were about my own thoughts on what's important in a workplace, how I address learning opportunities, etc. The most technical questions were still more general, regarding how I might approach debugging a particular issue. 2) Technical Exercise: My technical exercise was a take-home (not sure if this would always be the case), and I was asked to shoot for returning it in about a week. That said, the timeframe was more of a guideline, and they were very understanding that folks might have full-time jobs and/or families to prioritize during that time. I ended up asking for another 3-4 days so I could have another weekend to work on it. What an interesting problem! It was refreshing to have something other than a typical "write a backend and/or frontend" task. This was related deeply to quantum computing (though it didn't assume you knew too much about the subject, so no worries there) and was likely related to the type of work I'd be doing there. I always take the interview/exercise experience as an indication of what it might be like to work at a company. Do you enjoy the exercise? If not, you might not like the work you'd be doing if hired. This exercise was one of my favorite parts, as it had enough open-ended components that it really gave me the freedom to show myself to them. 3) Onsite Interviews: My "onsite" interviews were done remotely due to COVID, but the round consisted of about four interviews (likely not always in the same order that I had them). You could choose to do them over as many days as you'd like. I did mine over two days. I had one behavioral/organizational fit interview, which was very conversational and honed in a bit on what skills I can bring to the company. The remaining three were technical and covered mathematics (basic linear algebra and introductory quantum computing math), system design, and software engineering. I was a bit unsure what to expect for the math one, and I was a little apprehensive, but the interviewer was super kind and made me feel comfortable right from the start. In fact, all the interviewers did this. Each technical interview was less about a specific problem (like you might get in a round of Google interviews) and more about how I go about approaching problem solving in general. It gave me opportunities to discuss benefits of certain system design choices and how they might address issues like latency, and the software engineering interview gave me an opportunity to talk about benefits of certain software design or programming language choice decisions. There was no whiteboarding, except on the math interview (though the lack of whiteboarding might have been due to the remote nature of the interviews). Each interview was 1:1 -- there were no group panels. If those go well, you get a virtual tour of the quantum lab by a physicist there. This was an amazing chance to geek out and ask burning questions about quantum physics or the various devices in the lab. You'll also get a presentation by the recruiter that talks about the working culture and values at Rigetti. Once you're to this stage, the team has likely given you the green light and you'll head into talks about compensation. Regarding compensation, one thing I liked was that I wasn't pressed for my "salary expectation" at the very beginning of the process. I've never liked this practice, and it's much easier to give a number when you understand more about the position. That said, one recommendation I'd have for recruiters is to give the salary range for the position closer to the beginning (still without asking the candidate for their expectation). After I fell in love with the idea of working there, I realized that I had no idea whether they'd be able to compete with my current employer, and that caused me a bit of anxiety after going through the comprehensive interview process.