I spent around 5 hours on the interview process overall, including an initial recruiter call, a three-hour technical assessment, and interviews with the founder, software/frontend engineers, and the reporting lead/lead engineer. Most of the process was positive. The recruiter was friendly and helpful, the founder was open and forthcoming, and the engineering interview was relevant and constructive. The technical assessment was also interesting, although fairly broad for the time available. However, I withdrew my application after the technical assessment review. I had been looking forward to discussing my work, but the lead engineer came across as irritable, patronising, and unnecessarily antagonistic. Rather than a constructive review of my assumptions, approach, and conclusions, the conversation felt combative. There were still two interviews remaining, but that experience raised concerns about the working culture and how technical challenge is handled. The role seemed interesting, but I decided it was not the right environment for me.