I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Apollo.io (London, England) in June 2026
Interview
I was directly headhunted and contacted by a recruiter for a Senior High-Touch Onboarding Manager position. Unfortunately, the screening process was highly unprofessional and a complete waste of time. During the call, the recruiter repeatedly overstepped the boundaries of her role. Despite lacking the technical background required for this senior position, she attempted to conduct a technical evaluation and even condescendingly offered unsolicited advice on how I should answer her questions.More concerningly, her line of questioning revealed a fundamental lack of understanding regarding basic corporate compliance and data privacy. She repeatedly prompted me to disclose proprietary, confidential data from my current employer, information that no ethical professional should ever share during an interview. Following the call, I received a generic, automated AI rejection template claiming "the team has decided not to move forward." Given the recruiter’s complete lack of technical context during our conversation, it is highly evident that the actual hiring manager never even saw my CV, and the decision was based entirely on her flawed, gatekept screening.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Give me examples of automation you have done with AI
Interview reached out to me.
Had a screening round for half an hour with the recruiter.
First round was coding and then next round was system design.
1. Expression evaluation dsa question
2. Rejected in system design round
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a system for live comment section on youtube.
Had a in depth discussion on all aspects in the design.
Pretty intense round.
They asked me to mail the final HLD, back of the envelope calculations and any assumptions I took.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Apollo.io
Interview
I had a recruiter reach out to me. The recruiter was great, straightforward, and answered all of my questions. I would work with this recruiter any time.
The next stage was the hiring manager and he was full of red flags. He evaluates impact via the question "what would the team be like without this person?" This is a red flag because he is asking himself if he can fire his employees, and then converting that to a performance review. Incredibly toxic.
Additionally he stated that he doesn't care if someone works well with others, as long as they deliver. This is a high tolerance for individuals that create friction and a massive alarm bell for a terrible team culture.
I withdrew from the process and would highly recommend that others avoid Apollo. If this is the approach of their management, then you want to avoid this company at all costs.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How do you measure impact? (The answer is by asking if you can afford to fire someone)