Went through the GitLab frontend interview process earlier this year, targeting a mid-level (intermediate) role. Took about 5 weeks. Here's what happened.
Recruiter screen Standard 30 min. They asked about my React experience specifically and whether I had any exposure to Vue, since GitLab's main app is Vue. I'd done Vue in a side project so that helped, but they said React experience is fine.
Technical phone screen
Paired with a frontend engineer for about 60 minutes. We worked in a shared CodeSandbox. Two questions: Build a simple component: a list with filtering and sorting. They wanted to see state management, event handling, clean code. No Redux, no external libraries. Just vanilla React hooks. A JavaScript fundamentals question about closures and async behavior. I got a little tangled on the event loop stuff and they guided me through it. They're collaborative, not gotcha.
Onsite
4 rounds. The technical rounds were: Frontend systems design: design a real-time collaborative markdown editor. Not implement it, just design it. We talked about WebSockets, optimistic updates, conflict resolution (CRDT came up but they didn't expect me to know the details). This was the most interesting round. Live coding: two more components. One was accessibility-focused, which surprised me. They asked me to build a custom dropdown that's keyboard-navigable and screen-reader-friendly. I'd reviewed ARIA basics but hadn't practiced it. Spend time here. Behavioral: standard STAR. They asked about handling disagreements with designers and about a time I improved a slow page. Performance optimization stories are good to have. Hiring manager chat: not a technical round, more of a mutual 'do we want to work together' conversation.
What I wish I'd prepped more
Accessibility. CSS specificity and the cascade (they asked one conceptual question). Vue 3 basics even if React is your main thing.
Comp for intermediate level in 2026 US remote: my offer was roughly $145-150k base. Equity was moderate, not explosive.
The team uses GitLab itself extensively, which feels obvious but it's actually a nice detail. They dogfood hard.