The recruiter reached out and sent over a job description. She asked for my available slots through an online booking system which i provided and she scheduled the interview.
Yet, despite numerous follow-ups, I still had no clarity on what this first round entailed. Was it with a hiring manager, technical lead, or someone else?
On the interview day, a guy showed up and, with blatant disinterest, tossed me a generic question: "Tell me about yourself." No introduction, no interview format discussion—nothing at all.
The first question involved a coding task, even though the job description didn’t mention a requirement for coding skills. Nevertheless, I managed to tackle it.
I tried to engage with the interviewer using the FAANG approach—after all, I’m currently at a FAANG company—seeking clarity on the problem. But he displayed zero interest in discussing it; he was only focused on seeing the final code.
Next came a system design question. I took my time to explain my thought process. However, this interviewer was on mute most of the time, simply responding with an "OK" at the end of my explanation.
There were no follow-up questions, no discussion—nothing.
Throughout the interview, I couldn’t tell if I was nailing my answers or if the interviewer was utterly lost in what I was saying.
Overall, it was a deeply disappointing experience and a complete waste of time.