I applied via LinkedIn and was contacted promptly by a recruiter to set up a phone interview. The phone interview went well; she was very cordial, said I answered the technical questions well, and set up an onsite interview for the following week.

The format of the onsite interview was to have each candidate pair off with an engineer in a separate room. Candidates then rotated every 30 minutes so that each candidate was interviewed by each engineer.

I signed a paper stating that I cannot disclose the technical questions. However, I will say that my second coding question, given by my second interviewer, was difficult. He had one and only one answer he was looking for. He told me my solution was "completely wrong" (which it wasn't…) and did not explain why. This occurred after he had sat there, watched me explain my procedure, and asked relevant questions that I cleared up for him. I was baffled and shaken up.

After he left, the recruiter came into the room and asked me how I thought I did. For reasons unknown to me, she then informed me that I wasn't doing so well and the interview was going to be cut off early. It had been one hour so far, and the interview was supposed to last four hours.

So, I took the walk of shame through the Groupon office area to the exit. She made things more awkward by following me into the elevator because she needed to go to the first floor. I tried to crack some lame joke to lighten the mood.

Then, I walked to the nearest mini-mart and bought a 24-oz Milwaukee's Best Ice to drink out of a paper bag while I waited five hours for the next train back home.