Couchbase Site Reliability Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

So basically the process was standard - screened my resume, then had 3 technical rounds (technical, coding, and design), and finally met with the HM. The interviewers were cool, but the HM experience was terrible. He said things looked good and he was pretty sure about offering me the job, but mentioned a re-org might cause delays. Then, a week later, I got a rejection email citing a skill mismatch. I thought that was pretty unexpected after they'd already screened my resume and talked to me about my experience.

It was a really structured interview process. We began with a chat to see if my background and what I'm looking for in the future fit what they need for the role, then went through a bunch of technical interviews and got some feedback.

The interview process had some red flags. It included two video calls, each lasting about an hour. Both were technical interviews. The first one was with the manager of the SRE team. I answered some general technical questions and then did a coding exercise where I guided the manager through writing and benchmarking code. This part was okay, but then I found out the manager wasn't actually a Couchbase employee, but from an external consultancy helping set up the SRE team. He mentioned they were replacing consultants with direct hires and he'd eventually be replaced too, which was weird. The strangest question was about being ready to work non-stop. The next interview was hard to schedule because the manager kept changing times. He ended up not showing up, but I spoke with two engineers from the SRE team. It was more broad technical and architectural discussion. Turns out, they also weren't Couchbase employees but from the same consultancy. They seemed disengaged and spoke negatively about Couchbase's SRE efforts. That's when I decided I wasn't interested. The manager scheduled another meeting but rescheduled multiple times before just canceling and sending an automated rejection. Honestly, it felt like Couchbase just wants to get big and IPO, treating employees like cogs. If you're okay with that and a potential IPO lottery ticket, go for it. But if you want to be treated like a human, I'd pass.