I applied online. I interviewed at LayerZero Labs (Vancouver, BC) in Nov 2025
Interview
I have quite mixed feelings regarding LayerZero.
The recruiter was pleasant, the first interview (online) was interesting. It was a mix of regular screening questions and a chat about kinda a real life problem - you are given a description of requirements for a system and asked what you would look into, how you would balance those requirements etc.
I was told that the company had abandoned the leetcode interview approach. Which was a pleasant surprise in itself.
And then the 2nd interview happened. I came to the office in Vancouver and was told that I had to sign an NDA to enter the office. I was given a tablet to read the NDA and to sign it.
The NDA was quite big - there are something like 7 A4 pages of legalese, it took me about half an hour to go through most of the document. And I was only invited to come about 10 minutes early - not even for the NDA, but for the walk through the offices. So this was taking the interview time.
The software on the tablet was not designed for such a reading - the process was getting reset every 5 minutes or so. The tablet probably considered me reading the NDA as "inactivity". So I had to type in my name and email every time to continue reading.
The NDA is also too overreaching. For example, you are supposed to sign - because you come to the office for an interview - that for a year you won't do anything to harm relationships of the company with its customers. I suppose this negative review would be against the NDA.
So I walked out of the office without signing the document and without having the interview.
What bothers me - is that the office has plenty of people. Most, I assume, went through the same NDA process. Some, I heard, left their highly paid jobs at companies like Amazon - because LayerZero pays more. And everyone was fine - either with signing the NDA without reading it or with the process not being even designed for you reading it, or with the NDA being overreaching.
When people come to a company for the money and do not care about the quality of what happens around - that is a huge red flag for me.
I had a call about this later with the head recruiter. It was a pleasant conversation again. But ultimately the company has decided not to change the NDA. Even if now they plan to send the NDA to people ahead of them coming to the office. Which solves only the least significant part of the issue.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Here are system requirements. What kind of decisions are you going to make based on that?
I feels like it is a protocol design interview more than system design which I expected. But the interviewer was very nice and guided me to think when I am getting stuck.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at LayerZero Labs in Jun 2025
Interview
A recruiter reached out to me, likely based on my relevant experience. The process began with an initial screening, followed by a series of technical, conversation-style interviews. Overall, the experience was mixed. Some interviewers came across as professional and well-prepared, while others felt less structured and engaged, which impacted the consistency of the process.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The interview centered around practical system design, which I generally appreciate as it highlights logical thinking and applied experience. However, one portion of the interview was especially difficult. A complex system design problem was presented without clearly defined constraints, and important details were revealed slowly through verbal back-and-forth. There was no use of whiteboarding or written material to help clarify the problem, which added to the confusion. As a result, it was hard to get a full picture of what was being asked. More structured communication and visual aids would have made for a more productive and fair discussion.
