week 18 of my search, just came out of the capital one final round. senior SWE role, McLean VA location (i did it remotely). putting this here while it's fresh.
the full structure: virtual onsite, 5 hours including breaks. four rounds: technical screen with hiring manager (45 min): mostly behavioral, some light architecture. no leetcode here. coding interview (60 min): two medium problems on their HackerRank environment system design (60 min): real-time transaction system, see the other thread on this behavioral panel (45 min): two interviewers, structured STAR questions only
they schedule a 30-min break after the first two. take it seriously. get up, eat something, don't scroll interview forums. i made that mistake.
hiring manager round: the HM had clearly reviewed my resume in depth. asked about a specific project i'd listed. wanted to understand the business context, not just the tech. questions like "what would you do differently" and "how did you know when it was done enough" came up. this round felt more like a conversation than an interview. probably the most important one to go into relaxed.
what surprised me: the coding problems were genuinely medium difficulty. not medium-hard. i expected worse. the behavioral panel had two people who took turns asking questions, with the other one silently taking notes the whole time. very structured. a bit intimidating. they asked about my approach to security and compliance in a financial system in the design round. i hadn't specifically prepped for that angle. have an answer.
post-onsite: recruiter emailed to say debrief would take 7-10 business days. i'm on day 6. trying not to catastrophize.