How to take this company's approach

[u/Sudden-Start-9401]

Hi all, I have been interviewing with a software company for a C++ role for over two months. 2 screenings( one by the recruiter and one by the hr), One hackerrank, two technical rounds, followed by one with hiring manager and one with head of the department. So in total 5 rounds(excluding screening call). It's been 2 weeks since the last one and they came back and want to schedule one more technical round. I am not sure how to take it that they want to have a technical round after cultural round. Is it that they have another strong candidate already in line and they want to have another round to make sure to reject me?.

[u/kevinossia]

"Take"?

Just continue interviewing with multiple places until you have a written offer letter. Don't overthink it.

[u/Sudden-Start-9401 → u/kevinossia]

Kinda hard to digest after 2 months in-line. But that's life

[u/Aero077]

Don't blink at this point. If they weren't interested in you, they wouldn't have asked for another interview. Its probably between you and one other candidate. The new technical interview will probably be with somebody you haven't met before, who can make a decision either way.

[u/abandoned_idol]

Companies aren't that self conscious, if they wanted to reject you, they wouldn't need a formality, they'd bluntly let the candidate know with a good ol' "found someone more suited" email.

[u/Sudden-Start-9401 → u/abandoned_idol]

What's the crisp on another round?

[u/abandoned_idol → u/Sudden-Start-9401]

I'm impractically pessimistic, if I were in your shoes, I'd probably think the same as you.

But yeah, 6 rounds sounds like too much work. Whether you want yet another interview depends on how desperate you are and how badly you want to ask them questions about stuff.

Whenever I'm unemployed,.I rarely get any attention,.so I'll gladly take as many interviews as they ask from me. My record so far is 5 interviews

[u/NewChameleon → u/abandoned_idol]

6 rounds sounds very normal for like the past 10+ years based on my experience

1x HR phone call

1x technical coding phone interview

then it's onsite, which is 2x coding + 1x system design + 1x behavioral

= 6 rounds

I've done several hundreds of technical interviews (maybe 400+? 500+? if you include HR phone calls then easily 1k+) in my lifetime and pretty much all companies in SF region follows this exact model I think

[u/gms_fan]

It doesn't sound like hiring is a core competency for them. 

[u/Sudden-Start-9401 → u/gms_fan]

Well, one would expect since they are running for 39 years

[u/gms_fan → u/Sudden-Start-9401]

First of all, these individuals haven't been doing this for 39 yrs.  Second, lots of successful companies are pretty poor at the hiring process.  Lastly, this is an employers market and that tends to make the hiring apparatus slow and sloppy. They are all afraid of missing out on the unicorn candidate. 

[u/livLongAndRed]

You can try asking them about the end to end process