First HR interview of approximately 1 hour with an HR representative to introduce myself and the position.

Second interview: a technical interview. We started with about 15 minutes where I introduced myself and described some projects I had worked on.

Then, I completed 2 live coding exercises on an online platform.

I was rejected following the technical interview. The justification was as follows: I successfully completed the exercises and clearly described how I arrived at each solution. However, I did not find the most optimal/performant solutions. Yet, this is apparently what they expect for very theoretical exercises (the kind you do at university to learn to code).

I was advised to reapply in 6 months and practice on their exercises because they liked my profile. Spoiler: with technical interviews of this kind, that won't happen.

Q: Describe two projects you have worked on.