Lightning AI Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was good and fast, although it took a bit of time. I had 5 interviews in total: the hiring manager, three technical interviews where we discussed my past projects and the role, and a live coding session. The last interview was with the CEO.

So, the start was good, the recruiter and hiring manager seemed cool. But then, one interview was a letdown, kinda made me worried. The person interviewing was late by 10 mins, seemed uninterested from the start, and just rushed everything, no intro, no context. It was all super fast, they asked a few quick standard questions and ended 10 mins early. What was weirdest was them bringing up past layoffs a bunch of times, making things awkward. The whole vibe felt off, not just rushed but also not professional or energetic like I'd expect, especially from a leader. The early chats were promising, but this one interview made me doubt the team vibes and company culture.

I went through the whole interview process for the position that was posted as remote for a "remote first" company. I did 2 1/2 hour intro calls, a 1 hour technical screen, 4 hour technical panel interviews, and an hour meeting with the CEO, a total time investment of 7 hours. The questions were pretty standard. The problem is after ALL of that time commitment and being at the point of receiving an offer upper management unilaterally decided that no new position would be remote anymore, even though the entire staff is already spread around the globe. This sends a very clear signal, upper management does not care about its current and future employees. I would advise to steer clear of this organization and cohort of executives.

It was a pretty straightforward process with 4 rounds. First was a generic programming challenge. Then a systems design. Then another system design oriented at you. Then a final programming challenge with the CEO. They were quick to book times. However, some of the interviewers are based in the UK so interviews were rather early.