Applied online through LinkedIn and heard back from the recruiter shortly after, scheduling a phone screen for the next day.

The day after that, I spoke with the hiring manager, who explained the role in more detail and what would be expected of me for the rest of the interview process. I was offered a take-home coding exercise, which was vaguely described as optional. I declined due to time constraints, with the alternative being a more in-depth technical assessment during subsequent interviews with Senior Engineers.

Within a couple of days, I had one long day of interviews with the Product Manager, two Senior Engineers, and the Hiring Manager again. These ranged from process questions to a technical assessment to leadership fundamentals.

About a week later, the recruiter called and informed me that everything had been positive and that I would receive an offer letter within a couple of days. We discussed pay, benefits, remote versus in-office work, and the "whole nine yards" as if it were a sure thing.

Two days later, the recruiter called again and said the team had a "change of heart" and I would not be receiving an offer. They mentioned they would call back with more details but never did.

How do you handle a concurrency deadlock between two processes modifying the same data at the same time?