i see a lot of people asking how long the citadel process takes. here's my actual timeline from first contact to signed offer.
week 1: linkedin recruiter outreach. i responded the same day, recruiter replied within 48 hours, scheduled the intro call.
week 2: 20-minute recruiter intro call. covered background, role alignment, comp expectations. they were direct about range upfront which i appreciated. got scheduled for technical screen.
week 3: technical screen (60 minutes). coding problem + some system discussion. waited for feedback.
end of week 3: recruiter emailed to say i passed and asked for availability for the full loop.
week 4-5: scheduling the onsite took about 10 days. there were multiple interviewers to coordinate, which seemed to be the main bottleneck. loop was a single full day (4 rounds, remote).
week 5, day of loop: finished around 4pm. recruiter said to expect feedback in 7-10 business days.
week 6 (day 8 after onsite): recruiter called with verbal offer. moved to written offer the next day.
total time from first contact to verbal offer: about 5.5 weeks.
couple of notes: scheduling is the main variable. if interviewers are traveling or have markets things going on, this can stretch. i've heard of people waiting 2+ weeks between screen and onsite. they do not ghost. every step had a clear "we'll be in touch by X" and they stuck to it within a day or two. i asked the recruiter for a status update on day 6 after my onsite and got a response same day. they seemed to expect candidates to follow up.
one thing i'd say to anyone going through this: if you're comparing citadel to another active process, be upfront with the recruiter. i told them i had another final round the following week and they moved the verbal offer up by two days. they can move faster when they need to, they just default to their normal pace.
if you're earlier in the process and wondering about timeline, the screen-to-onsite window is the one with the most variance. the onsite-to-decision window has been pretty consistent at 7-10 business days based on what i've seen posted here and what i experienced.