Developers Frustrated by Broken Tech Interviews
Experienced developers consistently report frustrating and inconsistent interview experiences. These range from unclear problem statements and lack of context, to disrespectful interviewer behavior and overly rigid evaluation processes. The focus seems to have shifted from assessing practical skills to adhering to inflexible, often performative, interview formats.
SOURCES (60)
“so I just finished a 90-min technical interview for a early-career compiler role here in Germany (at least thats what the decsription says) and I’m honestly losing my mind. need some perspective cause im angry and panicking. The background: Applied one day, next day the…”
“Brutal. Recently did 5 rounds across 10 weeks….. No offer. It’s debilitating and extremely unnecessary. So much time and effort wasted—just to have to do it against with a different company.”
“Hi! I’m interviewing for a Senior AI Scientist role at Tempus (Life Sciences / AI Products) that requires PhD + 1 year experience and would really appreciate insight from anyone who has gone through the process recently. Background: PhD in CS, currently at big pharma, working mainly on healthcare AI/ML, multimodal/foundation models, medical imaging, and LLM/agentic AI. I am mainly trying to understand the full interview loop and what to prepare for: * What are the different rounds? * Is there li”
“I have a big recruiting event coming up . Im so nervous a lot of the companies I want are going to be there. What the heck do I even say or ask ? Any tips or things to make me stand out ? submitted by /u/ComfortableAnt2473 [link] [comments]”
“Suppose correcting will make you sound less qualified? Could maybe cost you the job. And they didn’t read your resume. Do you lie at that point and make up scenarios? submitted by /u/Successful-Test-5590 [link] [comments]”
“I was out of work for a year and a half and did fine in a recent pair coding interview. I was a little rusty, but reading over some old code I wrote in the days before the interview got me the job. If you're really that worried about losing your skills, practice them. You don't need to do it for hours every day. A few minutes works.”
“Went through the process and made it to a 15 minute interview with the “manager”. Didn’t pass and was asked all of 3 questions - why do you want to work for Alpha, tell me about a student you helped succeed with non traditional education approaches, and describe an activity or program you would implement. This was for a 200k role. I have over 20 years experience in education but got a rejection email within 48 hours. Also the “manager” was not very professional - was outside , wearing a tee shir”
“Thinking I may need an interview prep coach. May end up with my first interview at my first choice so wondering if anyone has any recommendations for a coach. submitted by /u/Intishstime [link] [comments]”
“Interview process timeline + weird scheduling situation I’m a recent Information Systems grad interviewing for an entry-level position and wanted to get opinions on a weird scheduling situation. July 23: Reached out to the hiring manager after seeing a post about the team and was encouraged to apply. July 31: Had my first interview with the hiring manager. It went well and I moved forward. Early August: I was invited to the final interview round, which had 3 interviews. August 6: I requested an”
“Interview interviewed yesterday for an internal role that will be a lateral move into a different part of the company. Working with internal recruiter. Meeting was moved five different times, literally. Meeting length changed. First it was 30 minutes then it was an hour. Less than 24 hours before the meeting the hiring manager reached out to assure that I had been sent the case study to address. Friends, I had not been sent a case study. Apparently other candidates got two or three days to work”
“Interview next week. Any tips? We have everything uploaded and reprinted docs as well. Any advice will help. Thank you all submitted by /u/Human-Rip3494 [link] [comments]”
“Hey everyone. I am/was a recent grad now with 2 YOE, and im trying to gear up for my first job hop. I’ve interviewed at 2 places so far (both with practical-ish questions that they were asking) and I haven’t passed both. I feel like each time there was some limitation that I had that I needed to iterate on, but is this just how it is? Do I just need to fail a bunch of interviews before I start passing 😭, because honestly that kind of sucks 😭😭 Do you guys have any tips on how to increase my pa”
“So I’m going through the interview process at Canonical, I did the written interview and the assessment test and got into early-stage interviews. I haven’t done any yet and will schedule them soon but I wanted some advice on what I should prepare for an operational role. Also I need to know how long the hiring process takes recently for operational roles as I already left my old job and need to know how long I’ll need to wait to set my financial expectations. Also wanted to ask about financial c”
“I've been lucky enough to move on to the next round of the interview process for a firm i'd be ecstatic to join. The next round would consist of a "skills" test in Rhino. Should I be expecting "gotcha" type requests or am I just making myself anxious? It seems like everyday a video is uploaded about some niche Rhino command that makes things so much faster, and with the firm specializing in freeform styles i'd hate to miss out on this opportunity because I didn”
“I always keep interviewing because it helps me understand what the market wants (building my skill set), keep up my interviewing skills, meet new people, and confirm if my current job is competitive”
“Makes total sense. I get your point about the specifics in those fields which, yes, makes a large difference due to differing operations. But this is serving haha. It’s all customer service. The only difference would be differing POS systems, but new tech comes out everyday that we have to learn. I feel like they don’t want to take time train candidates that would lower their turnover rate, rather than just hiring the one without the background and higher qualifications because they served for a”
“Try it some time before you have an opinion. Also quit talking about yourself like your are some kind of oracle because you are “management” running a coffee shop ain’t going to the moon either, you don’t have special abilities you are trained to watch people work. Try the experiment on yourself. Hire someone with zero experience, then train them yourself. Afterwards realize all that persons struggles will be you, the “manager” being trained by a subordinate.”
“It is getting trivially easy to catch AI cheating in interviews now I conduct technical interviews at a mid-size tech company, ~180K comp. Lately the number of candidates trying to use AI assistance has gone up noticeably The thing is, it's not even hard to catch anymore. On Google Meet I just ask candidates to share their full desktop, then switch capture mode to show all windows. The cheating UI pops up immediately for some people. Had one recently where the candidate had GPT reading answe”
“Not a PM but I went for a Staff Designer interview a while ago, for their Wise Platform team. Pretty poor interview overall - interviewer was nice enough but a) definitely felt more junior than me, and would have been my boss and b) asked me a question about something I had literally just finished explaining (basically how I work cross functionally, which teams I work with outside of design etc) I wasn't actively looking at the time but Wise was a company I had always been interested in... S”
“Please use this thread to have discussions about interviews, interviewing, and interview prep. Posts focusing solely on interviews created outside of this thread will probably be removed. Abide by the rules, don't be a jerk. This thread is posted each Monday and Thursday at midnight PST . Previous Interview Discussion threads can be found here . submitted by /u/CSCQMods [link] [comments]”
“I’m here to say that after 5 rounds of job interviews with this position, I got the job! I am sharing because this sub was very helpful for me. I was not seeking this job but an executive recruiter reached out to me and I thought it would be great to pursue the opportunity of this senior director/VP role. I have just finished my PhD and I am amidst selling my startup to take on this job opportunity full time. The interview process lasted 9 weeks. My interview journey was: - Recruiter screen - Hi”
“It was inappropriate to ask right off the back, you should be the one looking for the best route prior to the interview.... not asking mins in, but you probably did dodge a bullet.”
“This doesn't create an attorney client relationship. Anti-SLAPP in defense of defamation claims. I drafted one before. We won. Employer sounds deficient.”
“i always joke the interview is harder than most the jobs ive had, im actually a better interviewer than an engineer i think which scares me because i get jobs im way out of depth, but i keep getting paid more so its addictive”
“I shared my interview experience on several platforms, including here. My original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/s/WROeCntHyo Today, the recruiter contacted me and said the company had seen my Threads posts and wanted me to remove them within 24 hours. Otherwise, their legal team was considering legal action for defamation. I told the recruiter that I also posted about the experience on Reddit and Xiaohongshu (RedNote), that I will not be removing my posts, and that if they want to pursue”
“I had an interview today and in the moment it felt ok. I’ve been overanalyzing it all day and it’s stressing me out. Do yall have any suggestions submitted by /u/Fit_Meaning_8055 [link] [comments]”
“I’m interviewing for a TPM I (L3) role in supply chain. I get to the last round of the loop and its technical judgement and they gave me an SWE interviewer. I’m a decent coder, went to one of the best tech schools in the world (for supply chain) so I know tech but this man came in like I should know MLMs like the back of my hand. He also gave me no reaction at any point. Are these overly hard on purpose? I know very little supply chain people who would know coding and machine learning to the ext”
“Was about to say that some of the most annoying experiences I've had in my life with hiring is being a senior dev getting assessed by another senior dev, and developer fiat ends up getting in the mix with the testing.”
“Tried posting this in the interview community but they need a certain amount of comment karma. Until recently I didn't really comment on reddit 😅 this is my first post and I hope this topic is acceptable here. I'm sure this gets asked a lot but despite trying to look it up myself I'm still unsure for my personal situation. For context I am trying to get a job with less hours but higher pay. Overall I would make less but I would be getting enough to get by with more hours for my pers”
“First round with HM, then back-to-backs with heads of Eng and Data Science. Next, candidates will descend to the depths of hell and return to the surface with Satan's favorite corporate-branded stapler. Then, meet with the overpaid SVP, and finally, sniff the slop-bowl farts of the pompous CEO in-office for 2 hours. But seriously, why has this become the norm? I am losing my mind listening to these recruiters tell me about their absurd hiring processes while acting like it's completely n”
“I'm currently interviewing with YPTC and am curious about their culture. I've read as much as I can online but comments seem mixed ( mostly very negative on interview process). Any one currently works there? Can you tell me about the experience and firm culture? Thank you in advance! submitted by /u/TaxCPAs [link] [comments]”
“+1 to this. I passed the Riot interviews by studying EVERYTHING they had online and also just asking hiring manager what would be in the interviews. They gave me enough vague answers that I could prepare really hard. Riot has multiple core values they espouse. You should be prepared with multiple stories that demonstrate how you worked on something that aligned with those values”
“Sounds like you were training AI and that wasn’t an actual interview process honestly. Companies don’t spend that much time/resources to hire someone remote. They’d just hire someone for 1/4 the cost in India at that point.”
“Recently had an MMI where I finished a few stations early and some of the interviewers turned off their cams/mics with a minute or more remaining. One of them told me I could do the same if I wished, but none of the others really specified. Does it look bad if I turn off my cam/mic after we're all done or am I expected to stare awkwardly? -_- submitted by /u/imreallynotthattall [link] [comments]”
“This is TEXTBOOK recruiter "your answer to interview questions should utilize the STAR technique" bullshit. (Situation Task Action Results) They practically literally say it here: "Although you spoke confidently about your approach, some answers remained quite broad and would have been stronger with clear examples of the situation, your individual actions and the measurable results achieved." And this is why no one has respect for recruiters. Interviewing for a job is not tal”
“Mind you the person who interviewed me was 10 mins late and had a hard cut off at the end of the call. I felt like I had to rush my ideas on this presentation. submitted by /u/BeverageEnvy [link] [comments]”
“I’m just curious cuz I’m an anxious person. I wish I knew someone to help me practice so I turn to AI to help me but idk if it’s actually effective. Has anyone successfully landed an interview from practicing with ChatGPT or other chatbots? submitted by /u/Glittering-Ad-1626 [link] [comments]”
“Personally my answer would be something like "the cadence and policy at places I've worked over the years has varied, I patch when the written SOP says I patch". That's a great start, but your answer here before that said a LOT more about your understanding and knowledge. IT requires thinking. "I just folow the list" doesn't demonstrate that well. It's necessary too in a lot of scenarios, but even showing understanding of why rigid adherence to the SOP is nece”
“Just had an interview today that went surprisingly well. They seemed to like me and my experience and even said that they thought I gave the best answers out of any candidate so far (not sure if they’re just being nice lol), and could tell that I researched the company. How do I not get my hopes up. I walked out of there feeling like I might get an offer but now I’m overthinking and feel like I might get rejected. They also said that they would have to do a background and reference check on me.”
“Update from my post yesterday.. interview is now delayed until tomorrow. I have made some progress (i think) but am just seeing if there’s any other hidden gems of tips and tricks out there I could take advantage of! I just found out I have a job interview coming up immediately (as in, tomorrow), and I'm trying to get myself as prepared as possible in a short amount of time. I'd really appreciate any quick, practical advice on how to make my white shoes actually presentable. I’m in a bit”
“I got one for you all, I applied for a project manager position, I have 15 years of experience. This is a heavy civil role, which fits my career. The first interview they wanted to rush. I said I was out of town for my grandpa's funeral but I can make time for a remote interview. Remote interview is scheduled for an hour. I'm answering questions and responding as one would. One of the guys stops the interview, "are you using AI, your answers seem to pwrfect." I laugh it off and”
“Just finished with an interview and I am sure I didn't do very good. But I feel it was just as much the interviewer's fault as it was mine. He was asking questions in a vague weird way I haven't seen before. One question was he asked me to use objects around my house to explain OOP, which I did and I said words that would indicate encapsulation, polymorphism, etc. He then told me he was looking for the specific words, which his question was vague and he could have just said he was lo”
“Hi, I am anticipating a coding assessment from BNSF for their Sr Data Scientist position. The discord is not giving me anything, so I'm asking here. I really appreciate any help you could have, thanks submitted by /u/dhekurbaba [link] [comments]”
“Seems like a shit move, having you record answers to questions. Better than AI, but if the intro is a video diary, doesn’t seem good. submitted by /u/Ninetynineups [link] [comments]”
“Hey everyone. So as the title suggests I have an interview with a panel coming Friday and i am in the dark on how to prepare for it. I did my masters in materials science and have a published peer reviewed paper in which I am the co-author. The panel wants me to do a 10 min presentation explaining my background and my interest and how I am fit for the role . I wanted to know what I should focus more on. Whether I should include the results of the paper/my thesis on the presentation? submit”
“Hi everyone, I’m a final-year CS undergrad preparing for technical interviews with Canonical for a Web Frontend Engineer (JS, CSS, React, Flutter) role via their Fast Track pipeline. I’ve passed the application and written statement stages, and I have 3 specific technical interviews scheduled: Quality Interview Software Architecture & Engineering Skills Interview Web & UI Skills Interview Since Canonical has a unique hiring process and explicitly forbids AI tools during interviews, I wan”
“After 1000 applications, even “tell me about yourself” probably feels like a final boss”
“I've never heard of anything quite that lengthy if you haven't even been offered a position. I've had things similar (usually only an hour though) for past jobs with giant corporate entities but usually that's once you've already received the job and it's more of an on-boarding meeting not an interview. Have you done research on the company? Do they seem like a legit company and can you find anything online about past experiences of other workers?”
“I had a job interview today. The story starts 10 weeks ago when I heard a company was expanding so I just submitted a resume/cover letter cold. Turns out they were and I did a phone interview with them within a week which led to an in person interview today. The work is a specialized niche thing and very skilled in mechanical aptitude and organization. There are few people who can do this type of thing compared to 20 years ago, we're getting old and taking our skills with us when we pass. Ba”
“It is no secret that people who got the jobs 10-20+ years ago enjoy kicking the ladder beneath them and have came up with numerous amount of interview processes that they themselves never had to go through. I wonder if there is a good account of all the newly invented interview steps for this generation of job-seekers. One thing that comes to mind is having to upload a video of yourself talking about something and getting "preinterviewed". Obviously that was never a thing even just a f”
“Candidate A sounds too fresh if experience is what you need. I wouldn't count B out yet - how do you know they need you to give a lot of directions? Could you tell just from the interview?”
“I know this is probably a very stupid question, but I've never done a video interview like this before. When I got the email, it mentioned this being the first step of the interview process. I am simply wondering whether they automatically invite all of the applicants for the video interview or do they pick out the ones which show potential? submitted by /u/BrawnyBuffalo [link] [comments]”