A recruiter found me on LinkedIn. We set up a call to discuss the role and my experience. I sent her my resume, and then she set up a 30-minute call with a manager.

The manager called and conducted a verbal technical screening, even though the recruiter did not mention it would be a technical phone interview.

Next, they invited me onsite for three 1-hour interviews. The questions were basic CS-101 level. One of the interviewers spent half the interview on his phone, actually stopping our conversation for more than five minutes to text or email. He then gave me a coding challenge. As I began working on it, he immediately went back to tinkering with his phone.

He showed zero appreciation for the time and effort I was taking out of my workday to meet with them.

The following day, the recruiter informed me they would be passing on my application. I was extremely surprised because I felt I performed well during the interview, and I have previously passed much more difficult interviews at stronger companies. I currently work for a company known for its very high hiring bar.

I asked the recruiter for more detailed feedback, and she stated I lacked the right set of technical skills, specifically in C++.

I believe it is fair to select candidates based on specific language knowledge, especially if a company does not wish to invest in training. However, it is not fair to waste a candidate's time and bring them in for interviews when their resume could have been filtered out earlier for not listing C++ as an area of expertise.

Tree traversal, and other basic CS 101 topics.