It took four weeks for the company to schedule the initial call with the recruiter. The first call was fairly standard, with questions about my motivation for joining Bitvavo and my responsibilities in previous roles. Afterward, I was sent a HackerRank test consisting of four questions, which were comparable to easy or medium-level LeetCode problems. Upon passing the HackerRank assessment, I was invited to a technical interview with two developers. The topics covered included Java, the Spring Framework, databases, Kafka, and event-driven architectures. After successfully completing the technical interview, I moved on to a system design interview. I was asked to design a customer onboarding rewards system, with an expectation to use Kafka and an event-driven architecture. Following the system design interview, I was informed that the final step would be a cultural fit interview. I was told to prepare examples related to Bitvavo’s values using the STAR framework. However, after completing the cultural fit interview, I received an email stating that, despite receiving positive feedback, the company wanted to schedule an additional cultural fit interview. This was unexpected, as the extra step was not mentioned during the initial call when I specifically asked about the interview process. When I inquired about the reason for this extra interview, I did not receive a clear answer. I started to suspect that I had not passed the previous step. I asked if we could discuss the situation instead of proceeding with another cultural fit interview, but I was told that my only options were to attend the interview or be rejected. Despite my frustration and the significant time investment, I agreed to proceed. The extra cultural fit interview was conducted by a different pair of managers. The context was the same, but it seemed these interviewers were not informed that this was an additional step in the process. Ultimately, I received a rejection email. Based on the feedback, it appears that even if you perform well technically, you must receive unanimous approval in the cultural fit step to move forward. All of the interviewers up until the cultural fit stage were professional and courteous. However, my experience with the managers was less positive; I found them to be dismissive and unapproachable. It gave me the impression that they believe their tenure at the company makes them above the process. I am not confident that these managers would be able to pass the same interview process today. In hindsight, I began to wonder if there was ever a genuine intention to hire for this role. Advice to the Company: Please consider improving your interview process. If cultural fit is such a critical factor, consider moving it to an earlier stage, perhaps immediately after the HackerRank test. This would save time for both candidates and your team. Additionally, the behavior displayed by some managers during the interviews could reflect poorly on the company culture and may discourage strong candidates from joining. Advice to Candidates: If you value your time, ask if the cultural fit interview can be conducted earlier in the process. Be aware that the process may be lengthy and that the expectations for cultural fit are very high. Manage your expectations accordingly and continue exploring opportunities with other companies in parallel.