A recruiter reached out via email. I responded to set up an initial call. That call was pleasant and mostly about interests, compensation, and the process.

They then requested I submit times for a follow-up code screen. They had to ask twice, as the initial set of times did not work for them.

The technical code screen was a particularly challenging tree diffing problem. The interviewer was not helpful and struggled to understand what I was communicating or help me. I got the distinct impression that they weren't paying attention. When I would ask for help or clarification, they had to spend 30 seconds or more trying to figure out where I was. I would expect them to be following along.

I ended up getting very close to a solution – the code was compiling – and one test case was passing. It was clear that I was very close to the solution but wasn't quite able to get it in the time allotted. After the interview completed, I discovered a small typo which led me to complete the problem after the fact.

Given they decided not to move forward, I left with the distinct impression that unless you got it perfect, you would not meet their requirement of displaying adequate technical signal.

They also went over the allotted time by 25 minutes (the last 5 were time for me to ask questions). This was completely unacceptable. Interviewers should be respectful of people's time, even if that means not giving them enough time to get a working solution.

Under NDA, I prefer not to disclose.