Shorter loops, practical rounds and a take-home that is really a scoping test. Practise how startups actually hire.
Startup loops are shorter and less standardised, which candidates read as easier and is usually wrong. With three or four rounds instead of six, a single weak signal carries much more weight, and there is no hiring committee to average out one bad interviewer.
The take-home is the round most often misjudged. It is scored less on whether the feature works than on what you chose to build, what you deliberately left out, and whether the README explains the trade-off. Candidates who gold-plate a take-home for twenty hours frequently score worse than candidates who ship a tight version in four and document what they skipped and why.
The founder or hiring manager round tests whether you can operate without a defined roadmap: what you would do in week one, how you decide priorities when everything is unfinished, and whether you are comfortable owning something end to end without a specialist to hand parts off to.
30-45 min
Motivation, ownership appetite, and whether you fit the stage of the company.
4-8 hours
Build a small feature. Scope judgement and the README matter as much as the code.
60 min
Defend your choices, explain what you cut, and extend it live.
60-90 min
Work with an engineer on real code. Collaboration is explicitly observed.
45 min
Autonomy, ambiguity tolerance and breadth across the stack.
Close to the stated time, then stop and document. Reviewers compare against the brief, and a tight submission with a README explaining what you cut and why usually beats an over-built one - it demonstrates the scoping judgement the job actually needs.
Different, not easier. The algorithmic bar is usually lower, but the loop is short enough that one weak round sinks it, and the practical rounds expose gaps that a whiteboard round would let you talk around.
Whether you can operate without a roadmap. Expect questions about what you would do in your first week, how you would prioritise with everything unfinished, and whether you are comfortable owning a feature end to end with nobody to hand the other half to.
Build end to end under time pressure and defend what you chose to cut.