I applied online and received an email to schedule an interview within a couple of days. The initial interview was a technical phone screen.

The interviewer called 10 minutes late and barely apologized. He asked about my experience but didn't seem particularly invested or interested, as if he just needed to check a box.

The interviewer posed a medium-level LeetCode question. I arrived at the optimal solution immediately but made a mistake with the time complexity. This seemed to be a dealbreaker, as he stated he had another question prepared but that we "wouldn't get too far, so let's just end the technical part now." Remember when I mentioned he arrived 10 minutes late? By that point, I should have had at least another 20 minutes.

Throughout the entire interaction, it appeared he didn't want to be interviewing me. I had some time to ask questions. My first question was about the next interview steps. He responded that he didn't know and didn't want to provide false information. He then proceeded to explain that he had been with the company for 10 years and was heavily invested in hiring Software Engineers. It seemed peculiar that he wouldn't know this information after being involved in the process for so long.

So yes, I didn't feel optimistic after the call. I was rejected the following day.