Honestly, I will happily do a 4-5 hours interview but I will only do it once it's clear there's a 90% chance of a fit. In which case, I often actually enjoy it because it's a chance to get to know future coworkers and the working environment and just make sure I'm not jumping from a frying pan into a fire, etc.
But I also on the whole refuse interviews that are "leetcode" type situations and my nightmare would be 4-5 hours of some arrogant person 15 years younger than me trying to trip me up on "skill testing" trickery.
But sitting and talking for a few hours and meeting a bunch of people or analyzing a codebase together, or talking about a CS paper they've given me in advance to read? I think that's normal. But, again, that's only if we've done the first round or two and it's clear there's likely going to be some movement, and we're just doing our final due diligence to make sure both parties think it's a fit.
But I also on the whole refuse interviews that are "leetcode" type situations and my nightmare would be 4-5 hours of some arrogant person 15 years younger than me trying to trip me up on "skill testing" trickery.
But sitting and talking for a few hours and meeting a bunch of people or analyzing a codebase together, or talking about a CS paper they've given me in advance to read? I think that's normal. But, again, that's only if we've done the first round or two and it's clear there's likely going to be some movement, and we're just doing our final due diligence to make sure both parties think it's a fit.