I was contacted within 1 week of applying and did a HR phone screen. After the phone screen the hiring manager (which is generally the head PI of the group you will be joining as assoc sci) contacted me several days after the HR screen and we did a 30min phone interview. Due to COVID the next step would generally be an onsite full interview day and location tour but now it was a full virtual panel interview that took 6hrs. I essentially met everyone on the team, multiple team leads and the director of the group. As an assoc sci I-II you do not need to present data, that is scientist or senior scientist level. After the panel I received word from the initial HR rep 2 weeks later that I was chosen for the position, this is where they will go over salary and start date if you verbally accept here. I do honestly believe that the difficulty would depend on what kind of group you are joining. This was for a more exploratory preclinical group which does alot of in vivo work, the group was super friendly and did not feel like an intense grilling. Whereas I also applied for a late stage formulation job and everything was intense, the basic phone interview and panel was more technical and intense. But from both groups no one did gotcha or trying questions. The process was really smooth and organized from AstraZeneca.