i have a screen at HF in 3 weeks for a backend infra role on their Hub team. trying to calibrate what the loop looks like in 2026 since a lot of the older threads are stale.
specifically trying to figure out: how long does the full loop take start to finish (calendar time) is there always a take-home or does it depend on the role for backend/infra specifically, is it more systems design or more code is there a salary discussion before the offer or is it all at the end
if you've done their loop in the last 12 months, any info appreciated. role type + rough timeline + what surprised you. i'll compile and share back.
3 replies
infra_ines
did their infra loop last year, different team but same structure roughly. calendar time was about 5 weeks from first recruiter call to offer. take-home existed but it was shorter than what ML candidates seem to get, more of a 2-3 hour systems exercise. systems design round was the real weight, they went deep on storage and caching for large file serving. makes sense given what Hub actually does.
staff_steph
for what it's worth on timeline: HF moves faster than their reputation suggests. i've seen people close loops in under 4 weeks. they're not google pace but they're also not one of those companies where you email the recruiter every two weeks wondering if you still exist.
market_realist
salary discussion: from my round they brought it up themselves in the second recruiter touch after the take-home. didn't wait until offer. seemed like they wanted to make sure range alignment before burning more time. appreciated that.