I applied online. I interviewed at AiFA Labs in May 2026
Interview
Interviewed for a Rust Developer role at AiFa Labs and cleared two technical rounds covering Rust fundamentals, ownership/borrowing, lifetimes, smart pointers (Box, Rc, Arc), Mutex, traits, trait objects, static vs dynamic dispatch, async/await, Tokio, multithreading, Linux concepts, and coding problems such as implementing a MinStack with O(1) get_min.
My salary expectation was communicated before the interview process began. After clearing the rounds, compensation discussions kept moving downward and eventually fell below my previous compensation. I was then informed that the position had been closed.
Feedback: The technical interviews were good, but compensation budget and candidate expectations should be aligned before conducting multiple interview rounds to avoid wasting time for both candidates and the company.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Explain Rust ownership, borrowing, and lifetimes in detail, including why lifetimes are required. They also asked follow-up questions on smart pointers (Box, Rc, Arc), trait objects, Tokio, multithreading with Arc/Mutex, and implementing a MinStack with O(1) get_min. Previous projects in Rust.