5 rounds, declined. did the same loop at a different company with cluely. got the offer.
5 rounds with one company. recruiter, hiring manager, 2 team members, svp final. spent 3 weeks on it. they passed.
got the standard "very competitive finalist pool, not a reflection of your skills" email.
applied to a similar role at a different company in the space. exact same loop structure. recruiter, hm, 2 team members, svp. used cluely on every round.
got the offer last friday.
same me, same resume, mostly the same questions. star structure stayed visible the whole time. when the svp opened a hypothetical about scaling the team, i had the tradeoffs lined up before i started talking. on the team round when they pivoted to a system design question 20 minutes in, i had the framing surfaced before they finished the prompt.
am i a cheater. yeah. their recruiters ran me through 4 ats screens, their engineers ship every pr with cursor, the pm i'd report to drafts specs in chatgpt. the only 45 minute window where ai is suddenly off limits is when they're looking at me. that math doesn't work.
5 rounds at company one, no offer. 5 rounds at company two, offer. cheaters gonna stay win.