The telephonic round of the interview began without introductions. I opened CoderPad, copied a problem, and was told to 'read the problem and solve it.' I attempted to explain my understanding of the problem and my proposed solution, but the interviewer lacked the patience to listen.

Regardless, I started coding. I encountered an STL warning and intended to ask a question, but received the response, 'I do not know C++.'

In the end, my code compiled, but the output was incorrect, and I ran out of time.

As expected, I received a rejection. However, this experience was one of the worst I've had in my 12 years of industry experience. The person on the other end of the phone was incredibly rude, and I completely missed the point of such an interview. They could have easily provided a timed coding challenge, which would have allowed me to demonstrate my skills without the awkwardness of speaking over the phone with a rude individual.

I would recommend others focus their efforts on applying to better companies with more respectful staff.

A shortest path question variant