The job posting heavily emphasized AI-Assisted Development. However, the actual interview contained zero discussion of AI tools, LLM integration, AI-powered features, or any modern development workflows. It consisted almost entirely of trivia-style recall questions on language-specific concepts that were not emphasized (or even mentioned) in the job description.
When I asked at the end, “What is the biggest challenge the development team faces?”, only one interviewer gave a substantive answer. The CTO simply said “his answer is a good one” and offered nothing further.
I was rejected the following morning (Friday, after interviewing Thursday). When I provided feedback about the clear misalignment with the advertised role, they responded by referring to their questions as “foundational technical questions.”
Interestingly, shortly after my rejection the specific job posting on LinkedIn was closed (“No longer accepting applications” and removed from the company’s Jobs tab), even though they had described a multi-step process (take-home, review, CEO interview, etc.) that could not have been completed in that short timeframe. The same role remains actively posted on the company’s careers page and Indeed.
This interview process did not evaluate candidates fairly or meaningfully for the role. It felt more like a memorization test designed to trip people up than a serious assessment of engineering ability. Combined with disengaged leadership and inconsistent job board management, the entire experience was a waste of time.