I interviewed for a Sales Engineer role at Datadog (Bangalore, India) in August 2025. The process had several stages: 1. Hiring Manager Call (30 mins): A discussion focused on my past roles and experience. 2. Technical Test on Hackerrank: Covered topics like bash log analysis, REST APIs, Git, HPA, and Datadog configuration. The questions were fairly easy, and this round went smoothly. 3. Peer Connects: Two 30-minute conversations, one with an Account Executive and another with a Sales Engineer. After these rounds, HR called to share feedback. They mentioned the interviewers had given positive responses and that the next step would be a presentation round on a topic of my choice. I began preparing for it, but shortly after, HR emailed me saying the presentation was on hold due to internal changes, and they’d update me the following week. Around 11–12 days later, HR called again and explained that although they appreciated my presales background (AWS Solutions Architect) and technical skills, they were looking for someone with prior experience specifically in the Observability domain. This was frustrating, as I had clearly mentioned in my very first call that I didn’t have much Observability experience but was eager to move into the space. At that time, they assured me it wasn’t an issue. In the end, it felt like both my time and theirs was wasted because the requirement shifted mid-process. That said, at least they didn’t ghost me—which I later learned is a common complaint in other Datadog interview experiences.