They seem pretty efficient to me. I got the first round of interviews scheduled the same day I applied.
I'm used to being on the other side of the table, and in my experience, as long as you have strong relevant experience for what they need and put effort into the application, companies tend to move quite fast.
I also only apply to a few companies for positions that I find interesting and where I know I can bring value. My response rate has always been 90%+, even when I don’t know anybody there or have a referral.
Meanwhile, most people nowadays apply to anything with 'software' in the title and are surprised when they don’t hear back.
I'm curious what your resume looks like and how you articulate the value you provide. I've used the same approach but recently haven't been as successful as I have in the past.
As far as technical interviews go, are there any leetcode style questions involved, or are they more practical, like the take-home assessment you mentioned?
No leetcode. One interview during the onsite is vaguely algorithmic, but the process is designed to feel relatively close to the work you'd do on the job. For example, our web take-home assessment includes tasks like reviewing a colleague's pull request and tracking down a bug in response to a customer support ticket.