The interviewer was judgmental from the get-go, with a know-it-all attitude.

He didn't seem well-versed in algorithms and failed to answer clarifying questions or understand code implementations and their complexity. He was not happy with the proposed solution, despite it passing the test cases, and made an excuse that it was not efficient enough.

When probed further on what efficiency he was looking for, he couldn't answer.

What was further alarming was when he tried to explain his solution; it seemed he himself did not have a clear answer, and the half-baked solution he proposed verbally didn't even make sense.

I did some research post-interview, and my solution was, in fact, corresponding to the required efficiency.

Hoping the interviewer better prepares himself when interviewing candidates, as it just creates a bad perception of the company and disrespects the candidate's time and effort.

It was a LeetCode/algorithm-style question.