Broccoli AI | SDE 3 | Oct 2026 | Rejected

Company: Brocolli Role: SDE 3

Current Org: Startup College: Tier-1 YOE: 8+ Current Comp: ~65L (Cash component) + ESOPs

Round 1 - HR Discussion

• Basic intro, past projects, and motivation to switch.
• Note: I initially applied for a Staff role, but HR mentioned my experience was borderline for Staff, so they decided to evaluate me for the SDE 3 position instead.

Round 2 - Reverse System Design

• A deep dive into the High-Level Design (HLD) and architecture of one of my past projects.

Round 3 - HLD

• Task: Design a social media feed.
• The platform needs to ingest posts from Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, and generate a combined feed based on the influencers a user follows. Additionally, if a user searches for something, the system should show trending posts.
• I was able to come up with a decent design, as it's a relatively standard system design question.

Round 4 - CTO Round

• Got a call the next day after the HLD round saying the feedback was positive. They asked to schedule the CTO round late at night (11:30 PM), which I agreed to.
• The CTO just asked for a basic intro and if I had any questions for him.
• He mentioned they would let me know the final decision within two days.
• The round was scheduled for 30 minutes but ended in just 15 minutes.

Verdict: Rejected. Got a rejection email on the third morning after the CTO round. I asked HR for specific feedback, but received no reply.