Part 0 · 1 chapters · ~8 min
The Loop by Stage
What a senior or staff loop contains, what each interviewer is scoring, how debriefs and hiring committees work, levelling and down-levelling, preparing a timeline, researching the company and role, questions to ask interviewers, and remote interview logistics.
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Stages and signals
| round | signal scored | staff-level bar |
|---|---|---|
| coding | problem solving, code quality, testing, communication | clean, tested solution with trade-offs stated unprompted |
| system design | requirements, architecture, trade-offs, depth, operations | drives the conversation; finds the hard part; reasons about failure and cost |
| behavioural / leadership | scope, influence, conflict, judgement, growth | impact across teams; changed how others work; made hard calls |
| domain / project deep dive | depth in your own work | can explain every decision and what they would change |
Questions worth asking interviewers: what does a staff engineer here own; how are technical decisions made across teams; what was the last thing a staff engineer changed that mattered; how is on-call; what would make someone in this role fail in the first six months.
A TYPICAL SENIOR / STAFF LOOP
what each stage decides
swipe the figure sideways, or tap expand for full screen
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recruiter
The recruiter call sets the level being considered and the process. Ask how the loop is structured and how levels are calibrated; say what scope you have held, not just your title.
level and processask how levels are decided