I received an email requesting a phone interview and scheduled it for the following week.

The engineer called me from a large, empty room and spoke to me on speakerphone. I had a difficult time understanding him, and he seemed unsure how to proceed when I mentioned the issue (there was no handset available). I struggled through the conversation, and it was a nuisance.

The interview felt cold. He began by asking basic questions, indicating he hadn't reviewed my application or resume. The remainder of the interview felt like a quiz, with three questions each on Java, Python, Hadoop, and so on. My recruiter had stated this would be approximately a 30-minute interview, but it lasted longer than 45 minutes.

Two days later, I received follow-up from the recruiter stating they would not be moving forward.

What is the contract you should follow when writing a .equals method in Java?