Air Space Intelligence Senior Software Engineer interview questions

The interview process was a lot - three rounds virtual and four hours on-site. Communication was somewhat disorganized; I got the final invitation for my on-site on a Saturday night - the on-site was Monday morning. No response to my follow up questions between rounds. No description of the role or level for which I was being considered at any point in the process (I was referred by an external recruiter). They say that they tailor the interview process to each candidate, but it seems they're looking for something very specific because they didn't touch about half of my background or relevant experience in any interview. My opinion: their interview process gives candidates many opportunities to fail and very few to highlight unique skills or experience. Pay bands they're offering are fairly low compared to the market - the external recruiter was very emphatic about them being firm on a number that seemed low to me, and they brought it up multiple times well before the offer stage. On the positive side most of the individual contributors I met throughout the process seemed fairly bright and friendly. Overall, pretty typical of a startup these days. My opinion: they're looking for a unicorn - one that matches their narrow constraints exactly (and no more) and does not see unlimited vacation as a potential red flag - but they want to pay them about half what they could make in big tech.

Recruiter reached out, had a very nice conversation with her and her counterpart. Had a meeting with the CTO, thought it went fairly well but didn't get selected to continue in the process. That's fine, maybe I messed up somewhere, I'm not sure. I asked for some feedback to improve on and did not receive a response. Feels like a very randomly selective process and would've been professional to at least receive feedback on why i wasn't selected.