Hi there, I’m sorry you had a negative experience. While we want our interviews to be challenging, we certainly don’t want them to feel like a waste of anyone’s time. For context, I’d like to share a bit more about how our team works and clarify why we ask these sorts of questions (e.g., about making public transportation free) in some of our interviews for this role. Millions of people with different backgrounds, interests, devices, and connection speeds use Reddit, so part of what we’re looking for in Product Designers here is the ability to look broadly at all sorts of users and find solutions based on what they have in common. Generally by the time we get to an in-person interview, we already have a good grasp of their technical design skills and portfolio, so what we want to find out is how they think through challenges that affect a group of people comparable to the scale and diversity of our own user base. Reddit has a very collaborative atmosphere between our Product and Design teams, which means there’s a lot of room for original ideas and real-time brainstorming between PM’s and designers. So, while we do offer some follow-up questions and light prompting to help folks along in our whiteboarding sessions, we’re really looking to get a sense of how you develop ideas—not whether or not you find one “right answer” we’re waiting for. Last but not least, we pride ourselves on our team culture. The whiteboarding sessions are more about seeing how candidates work, but for those who make it to the next stage, we have an onsite with 1:1’s across the team. This gives applicants a chance to get to know our team culture firsthand, which I think you’d find very friendly, open, and collaborative. (And as for the dark office, well, we’re moving to a larger space with plenty of natural light soon.) For any future applicants who might be reading this, if you’re excited by the prospect of working on high-impact projects thinking through how we present some of the best content and communities on the internet to millions of people every day, please apply. Best, Lowell Goss Head of Design