I was referred by a former coworker, and the process moved swiftly from there. Chatted with a recruiter first, then moved to a technical screen. The technical screen consisted of a system design question alongside a bit of coding. The interviewer was communicative and let me lead for the most part, but asked clarifying questions when needed. It was a smooth interaction and I felt it was a fair evaluation. After the phone screen, an onsite was scheduled, and the recruiter gave me feedback on desired changes to my approach. They said they wanted me to be more collaborative with the interviewer, check in with them more regarding their opinion, and provide more options for potential design before moving forward. In short, make decisions together and move slower. The onsite consisted of a longer coding challenge, a few system design challenges, and a behavioral interview. I applied the feedback I had received and slowed my design process down, made the design decisions collaborative, and checked in frequently to get their commentary. The questions took a bit of thinking, but there was nothing unreasonable asked. Though the onsite technical interviewers were less personable than the one from the phone screen, they were all polite and professional. The day after, I received a voicemail from the recruiter to tell me they were not moving forward, but the decision was close. They shared that I did not drive the system design questions forward enough on my own. This was a frustrating outcome because it feels like the recruiter tanked my onsite with bad feedback. I would recommend taking the feedback from the recruiter with a grain of salt if you advance to the onsite from the phone screen. If you got to the next stage, you should probably stick with what got you there.