FluentStream Technologies Interview Questions
& Process

This was a really weird interview. They gave me a take-home assignment to design an AWS system, but with hardly any instructions. The problem was outdated because the data they wanted me to use had changed. They set up a call to answer questions, but they didn't seem interested in my project and mostly talked about personal stuff, so I had almost no real guidance. I built a highly available serverless system with CI/CD, containerization, and automated testing. For the final interview, I had to present, but they kept interrupting with 'gotcha' questions, often unrelated to my project. They focused heavily on minor AWS Lambda and CIDR block details. The interviewer just dropped off 15 minutes early, so I couldn't ask any questions I had prepared. A few days later, they said the only negative was I said 'I don't know' too much and they didn't think I was senior level. Most of their questions were vague or unrelated to my project, like asking about the shape of a security key. It seemed like they didn't really understand containerization, CI/CD, IaC, or serverless, despite being critical of my knowledge of minor details, even asking about Java Lambda cold starts when my project was in JavaScript. They required AWS and a deployment mechanism, which made the project expensive, costing me about $500 and 10 days of my time. If you interview here, insist on an AWS account. I found a better job soon after.

So the first thing that happened was a phone screening with a recruiter. They asked some general questions and then gave me an overview of what the job is about. The recruiter was really nice and we had a good chat. Towards the end of the call, they offered me a Zoom interview, which I accepted. The Zoom interview had three people interviewing me and they asked a bunch of questions. It was a bit intense because I've never had an interview like that before, but they were also super nice and made me feel comfortable. They also gave me the chance to ask as many questions as I wanted and told me when I should expect to hear back.

The interview process was quite interesting for two reasons. The first, was difficulty quickly communicating with my interviewer. The second, was that I got hired as a Product Manager, when I applied for a software development job. The interview was a simple REST coding challenge, with a quirk that required you to talk to your interviewer to solve. However my interviewer was the owner of the company, so understandably it was not easy getting time with him. However, I kept with it and solved it in two different frameworks. After about a month without hearing from him, he sent me an offer.

So I had this one phone screen and honestly I ended up ending the call early. I just couldn't believe how the interviewer acted. He reached out to me to set up the call and asked when I was free over the next few days. I gave him my availability for that week and even added an extra slot the following Monday just to be sure. Four days later he replied saying: "Unfortunately, I am already booked during the 1 hour time block you provided for Monday; is there any additional availability in your schedule?" He didn't even apologize for the late reply or mention that I gave him multiple options. I thought it was a weird way to respond but figured he was just busy and gave him more times so we could finally set a date. By the way, everyone uses Calendly now, so FluentStream, get with the times! Anyway, the phone screen interview started with some small talk about the weekend and then we jumped straight into questions about me. I started to answer a question, but he cut me off mid-sentence. He went on a rant about how I was being ambiguous and how important it is to not be ambiguous. His tone was rude and condescending. If he wanted an example, he could have just waited, because I was about to give one, or asked for one! After his lengthy tangent (felt like 2-3 minutes), I said a few things to get back on track and was about to give my example when he rudely interrupted me with "IN WHAT WAY?" At that point, I was done dealing with his attitude. I told him I didn't feel a connection and that I wouldn't be able to showcase my strengths, so I wanted to end the interview. You shouldn't talk to people like that, especially potential employees. Plus, it's a candidate's market right now and I had other interviews that day, so it was easy to just move on from FluentStream.