Developers Frustrated by Broken Tech Interviews

“Is tech hiring biased against women in your opinion? I know some who work in this field, but I'm struggling a lot to get in. [re: I am both extremely confused and extremely resentful of tech culture]”

“Hey, congrats on the job. For the one way interview is it video or just audio? [re: BMO digital interview]”

“I had 2 tech interviews for my role I landed a month ago. Both were Python and both were typing in notepad. Both were 30 minutes. The first one was easy. Take a list of lists and return the [0] of the list with the largest [1] in order or something like that. Child's play My second interview was to take list of dictionaries of lists, then compute metrics on them in multiple different scenarios, and calculate percent chance of failure based on cross combining the test results. This one was ha”

“Some roles I worked on progressed to interview stage. The rest had zero movement and almost no correspondence for the hiring managers. Silence seems to be the default for a lot of people right now. How are you handling (or experiencing) the no-response rate? submitted by /u/YTdeancousinTV [link] [comments]”

“This week an interview was lined up. Candidate had done solid research and prep. Key hiring requirement changed last minute from web-first to mobile-first. Within the first couple of opening lines they were ruled out. The prep was perfect. The change ruined it. I knew he could do the job and the feedback was he was a direct personality fit for the team. My take was it seemed harder to actually get to the interview and progress then it would’ve been for him to actually do the job. Interesting to”

“With all the doom and gloom around AI, I was wondering how much the market has been affected and what companies are actually looking for these days. Did you have to go through five rounds of interviews? Was there a live coding session and/or a take-home exercise? Was there anything different from what you've experienced before? submitted by /u/Positive-Anywhere872 [link] [comments]”

“your skillset seems super narrow and what I'd expect from a junior OP, I hope you don't give much weight to this. A stranger on the internet can't evaluate your ability from a short snippet: "react, typescript, etc" and "basically built landing pages in a CMS and only did slight coding". This could signal very junior ("don't know how to code, really") or very senior ("I'm so focused on shipping and so good at my tools that I don't even t”

“For those who have made it to the final panel/presentation interview and gotten the offer - how long did it take? Asking specifically for commercial + enterprise reps. I know it may vary by team, recruiter, and urgency of the role.. just curious :) submitted by /u/CantaloupeNo5745 [link] [comments]”

“Why not pick one resume out of the stack and hire without any interviews? Guarantees the luckiest candidate every time [re: 3.5 yoe, Generic .Net dev. Been looking for since january. What am i doing wrong?]”

“From the hiring side of the desk, we are getting flooded by people with perfect resumes who can't answer basic stuff. My methodology is to ask some basic questions driven by what you have in your resume, then we drill deeper with hypotheticals to get a feeling for what your problem solving workflow is. I do that precisely because the subset of the field I'm in, it's extremely illegal for me to ask directly about what you did and even more illegal for you to answer. It's not trivi”

“I had a final round with the executive team. This was the third round. I was asked to interview for it a day before and I said yes to it. I did …ok. I wonder if I should have said no and asked for more time. I’m bummed because this would be a great place to work. submitted by /u/AffectionateAd4047 [link] [comments]”

“Treat them like students, absolutely. The panel isn't judging your content knowledge in 10 minutes, they're judging whether you can run a room. Ask them questions, cold-call one of them by name, do the thing you'd do with a real class. The candidates who bomb are the ones who lecture at the panel like it's a presentation, because then you're just a nervous adult talking at other nervous adults. Pick a topic you could teach half asleep so the nerves don't eat your brain. W”

“Looks like they needed free consulting. Sorry about that, OP. That being said, if you have had a few interviews, you should be able to reach out to your interviewer directly and ask for feedback, or even play it naively and assume there was a mistake in their automated process. If I had done a few round of interviews and an assignment, I would never accept an automated rejection email as an outcome. I would also roast them on company reviewing platforms like Glassdoor [re: I was specifically sou”

“this is the way imo, quick and honest without messing with the original conversation [re: When an old interview has a factual mistake, where do you put the correction?]”

“thought folks here might like this one, be kind to each other folks we all only have one beautiful life in this world so try to fill yours and others with love submitted by /u/Fluffy_Buffalo7756 [link] [comments]”

“just wanted to get this off my chest more than anything. I had a virtual interview this week with about a day’s notice. Meeting was going to be via Teams. Ended up running into some technical issues on my end as I had just installed office a few days prior and was approximately 10 minutes late getting into the meeting. Figured my chances were probably blown but better late than just deciding to go have lunch. I log on and the two panelists were chatting but one person immediately dropped from th”

“Hi all! I’ve been so nervous since my interview because this is my dream company, and honestly, just getting the opportunity to interview felt like a big deal to me. I prepared my ass off, and I felt like 3 out of the 4 interviews went pretty well. My recruiter said I should hear back by Thursday or Friday, but I haven’t heard anything from them since. I had also emailed the hiring manager after the interview, and although it took a while, they surprisingly replied on Friday with this message: “”

“I just watched a Youtube video by Charles Duhigg about how to test for emotional intelligence in job candidates (surprise, it involves social science trickery that would never work in a real workplace) and I'm thinking back over the last 25 years about how many problems we could have dodged if we just figured out a way to find candidates who were emotionally intelligent and not hiding chronic anxiety. Upon reflection, maybe the chronic anxiety showed up after the hire. submitted by &#3”

“I’ve landed quite a few interviews with middle market firms and every time, I make it past the recruiter screen, but get rejected after the final round interview. Now in a couple of days I have a final round interview at a top 10 firm and if this doesn’t work out, then I’ve officially been rejected from every middle market firm. For some context this is for an audit associate position and I’m currently in my final year at school in the MAcc program. I’ve never gotten direct feedback from prior i”

“For the async part of the role, I'd test the handoff rather than just the polished English. Give both finalists the same short, fictional brief with a missing decision and conflicting requirements. Allow the tools they'd actually use, then change one requirement and ask them to update the handoff. I'd score whether they catch the gap, get a decision from the right person, and keep the plan consistent. That makes “authority” something you can observe, rather than an interview impressi”

“I’ve asked this question at the end of two different interviews, and both times the interviewer said they really appreciated that question. submitted by /u/strongerthenbefore20 [link] [comments]”

“I just did a HireVue interview for a job I REALLY want, and I genuinely feel so demotivated about how it went. I feel like I didn’t get to show who I actually am as a candidate, and my answers were literally all over the place. I keep replaying my responses in my head and cringing at things I said or things I could’ve explained so much better. I genuinely believe I would do 100% better in an actual interview whether in person or virtual. I’m so much better at expressing myself when I’m talking t”

“i'm a 20+ year dev. longer if you count just doing it for fun and non professionally. none of the old interviewing questions work. people just cheat, and leetcode was never anything but a meme. i'd prepare a simple repo, with a VERY obvious trap in it. It wouldn't be too complex of a repo, simple enough for a human to go through it all in a couple of minutes. Then I ask them to implement X, (and see if they notice the trap). I also read their prompt. That will immediately make it obv”

“Yeah i think the lesson learned is that the friendly chat is just an additional interview and is not actually a friendly chat [re: is the market cooked or is it flooded with mid people]”

“I’m not sure how I feel about a recent interview experience I had: I interviewed for a firm that listed AutoCAD and Revit in its qualifications. I drove a bit over an hour to the office. Before the interview, they handed me a physical application to fill out (there wasn’t one online when I emailed my resume and had to answer a bunch of questions from HR, then HR told me that they want to meet with me and to come with questions to ask) and then I wasn’t finished filling the application out and th”

“If you want to be maliciously compliant - "Hot take, this one-way video interviewing thing has marked downsides..." [re: Not sure how to respond to this :/]”

“I recently had one of the most disappointing interview experiences of my career, and I just need to vent. I was interviewing for a Senior Product Analyst position at a fintech company. Before the interview, the recruiter sent me a detailed breakdown of the 60-minute session: 10 minutes of introductions. 15–20 minutes presenting a case study I’d completed beforehand, followed by questions. Product problem-solving and scenario-based questions. 5–10 minutes for my own questions. I spent hours analy”

“I just finished an interview and I genuinely cant tell if I did any worse 😭 I prepared for the usual questions and went over my experience so I thought I was ready but then they started asking so many questions that was just out of my expectation and suddenly its like I forgot how to speak like a normal person. I kept rambling legit gave a 5 minute speech on what couldve just been 2 sentences. and then only thought of the right thing to say after were already done with the question. The annoyin”

“cope and skill issue [re: Junior developers, all you basically need is being honest really]”

“cope [re: Junior developers, all you basically need is being honest really]”

“My interview was extremely informal. I knew it was going to be conversational but basically the woman was playing solitaire before we started lol and then I walked in and she wanted to talk a lot about our shared interest of tennis (i played in college) and we talked about so much random stuff like ...what are my fav tennis shoes or which books i am reading now, and i think i am very bubbly and personable so we laughed a lot and conversation flowed easily but the whole time i am like... is she g”

“I’m so nervous, especially after bombing an interview for another job last Thursday. submitted by /u/oldHang2steak [link] [comments]”

“Genuinely I hate questions like these in an interview 🫩 But I do understand that some companies who have employees often find very unqualified people in their interview rooms, and they need to figure out who actually knows the job haha. Solodolo's reply was pretty on the money though, in terms of what most employers are looking for! [re: How would you answer this question in an interview?]”

“I post here pretty frequently, but for context, I’ve had 121 interviews with 71 companies over the past year, including 16 final rounds where I finished second every time. By now, I’m pretty polished at articulating my experience and giving concise, relevant examples. There’s clearly something I still need to figure out about getting across the finish line, but this post is about how differently we can perceive our own performance. Yesterday, I interviewed for a Senior Customer Success Manager p”

“Hey everyone, I recently applied for a Senior SWE role at this Drupal web development agency, and I received a mandatory home assignment before any introductory call or recruiter screen, with a 5-day deadline. The scenario is a fictional 6-person web agency " managing ~50 client sites (WordPress/Drupal/Shopify), and they want a monitoring service to learn about outages and such. Here is what they want built and designed: Part A: Monitoring Service: Build a working monitoring microservice fr”

“The return-use question is the right one. I’d test two different jobs separately: “say something publicly” and “search what people said about someone.” Ask five people to narrate what they expect before clicking anything, then ask what would make them return a week later. Given the anonymity, moderation and consent will likely dominate trust. A short Askli Research Challenge sprint could help you interview those users before you invest more in competitions or rankings. [re: I created a free webs”

“Just finished my HBS interview. The interviewer cut me off while I was explaining things related to a complex topic and asked me to simplify it. I think I messed up another question where they asked me about a project and I spoke about the challenge and how I overcame it. Really not sure what to make of the interview - the wait till December could not be longer. submitted by /u/plotracer35 [link] [comments]”

“After clearing the first 2 interview rounds virtually, and the 3rd round is in person. Anyone who has gone through this recently? What should I expect? Would love to hear your experience! TIA 😭 ROLE : SENIOR TECHNICAL CONSULTANT -FSL Location: Hyderabad submitted by /u/kachaowow [link] [comments]”

“It's possible to rehearse a clear answer to "tell me about a difficult project" and still struggle when the interviewer asks, "Why did you choose that approach?" or "What would you change now?" One practice format worth testing: give a two-minute answer about a real project, then have a practice partner ask follow-ups about the decisions, trade-offs and result. No restarting the answer, and no writing a polished response to every possible question beforehand. Af”

“My personal experiences over the past 5 years. Company A, known for having one only round: When can you start? As soon as possible? Oh no don't worry we have job security here! Our team is so close knit! It is so rare to find a combination like you (Rejected 2 weeks later). Company B: You interested? Nah you don't seem. We do XYZ here. You sure? We have other candidates to process, and a meeting to talk about this, don't get your hopes up too high (offered a week later. One interview”

“1st company - let's call them T 2nd company - let's call them P T is just close to my place with a 15 min walk but the interview was okay, I didn't do very hard but it wasn't good either. I'm more interested here as it's close to my place and it's a GCC. P is an Indian company and highly regulated Fintech firm. 5 day WFO and located 30 km from my place. This went well and they are pushing me to the next round Both companies I've completed 1 round each with an addi”

submitted by /u/Mutegik2007 [link] [comments]

“Interview at the end of the interview told me "Just let me know when you get accepted". Is that a good sign? submitted by /u/Automatic_Cobbler711 [link] [comments]”

submitted by /u/Mutegik2007 [link] [comments]

If you can help out at all, please send me a message!! I have a lot of time to practice and would be grateful for any help! Thank you! submitted by /u/Optimal-Angle-5202…

submitted by /u/invisibleCode49 [link] [comments]

“for the warm intro route you're considering, give your contact something they can forward unchanged. three sentences with the role you're after, one concrete result from your internships or side business, and why that specific team fits. ask for one named founder, not 'any startups hiring?' also, before making another custom project, ask whether the problem is actually a priority and whether there's budget for help. a funding map can be useful and still have nothing to do wit”

“I got through the interview by throwing around enough jargon to sound like I knew what I was talking about That probably says enough about your job that it invalidates the rest of your post, no? EDIT: Also, because I hate myself and decided to read the rest of the post: and it helps that they don't really have an existing cloud engineer to fact-check me. ... If AI was as bad as people say, I'd have been found out ages ago. ??? whomst've would do the finding out? [re: To anyone doubti”

“STAR is the worst. "Let me make up a scenario you may never have encountered and expect you to immediately come up with a story to fit it." I interviewed for a position with a large company. They forwarded me their 40-some likely STAR format questions. So I made answers to fit but it was the least genuine interview process in my 25+ year career. I quit after less than six months because the company and I were a terrible fit because the questions were bullshit and neither side really sh”

“I’m excited about a potential opportunity, but the interview process has me very nervous. The panel would include HR, the hiring manager, and the company’s CEO. Apparently, they go through every job dating back to high school and ask what you liked and didn’t like about each one. What should I expect from an interview like this? Will they ask if I’ve ever been fired? When I was 20, I was fired from a bar for drinking on the job. That was 16 years ago, and I’m now 8.5 years sober. Since then, I’v”

submitted by /u/arepera [link] [comments]

“just had an interview that went for 31 minutes of the 45 intended minutes it was supposed to go. my brain went completely blank sometimes and also kept using filler words. i was able to ask a few thought provoking questions though. i don't know how to feel and don't know if it went positive or negative either. submitted by /u/ceo_of_losing [link] [comments]”

“Okay, so I just passed my third interview round. This was a panel interview with the CEO, the engineering manager, and a couple of other engineers. We had a whole one-hour detailed technical discussion. Now... I have a very real edge over the other candidates, and I'm pretty sure nobody else in their candidate pool has that particular edge. The role involves being subcontracted to a US company, which is a VERY big multinational company, and I've actually worked with that company before.”

“I Had a final round in-person panel interview last week with four people. Interview went the full hour, conversation felt natural, lots side conversation also happened through out it. A few days later I noticed one of the panelists viewed my LinkedIn profile which might be another normal thing for them to do But, today I got this email from the recruiter: "The team has recently completed their interview process and we hope to have a decision made soon. Thank you again for your investment of”

“Do you mean add more info in the extracurriculars? [re: Keep getting rejected before and after interviews but mostly before]”

“It's been about 5 years since my last interview at my current job. I didn't have this kind of phase 1 interview, super saiyan 2 interview and so on. Last month i had a user interview with a company. Today they contacted me for offering via teams. I just can't picture it at all. What are we going to talk about? I thought they'd just send me some papers with conditions and policies and obligations, and if i agree, i sign it. Anyone with experiences please share with me. submi”

“What types of jobs have you interviewed for so far? If you haven't tried applying for AI training gigs yet, you might want to look into those. There's often very little experience required and some of the project pay very well. [re: Unemployed 2 Years, Where Would You Look For Work Or Get Cash?]”

“I’m curious to hear what the job market feels like on the ground right now, especially for software engineers and other technical roles. Are you seeing more interviews and offers than six months ago, or is hiring still slow?For people who have recently found a role, what actually helped—referrals, direct outreach, niche expertise, open-source work, or something else? And for those still looking, what has been the most frustrating or surprising part of the process?It would be helpful if you could”

“Has anyone given Scaler's BDA final round with hiring manager? Please tell me what all questions they have asked. Its urgent . submitted by /u/Brilliant_Ad_1966 [link] [comments]”