The phone screen with the hiring manager covered past projects and some high-level NoSQL concepts.

I had five 1:1 interviews:

• The first interviewer was at a director level and discussed projects, experience, and some big data questions regarding uniqueness.
• The second interviewer, an engineer, had a prepared list of Java questions, similar to those found on any Java interview preparation site. At times, I felt the interviewer himself wasn't sure of his own questions.
• The third interviewer began with C formatting questions (printf). He then requested a non-recursive Fibonacci implementation in exactly four lines, believing the question was straightforward and required no discussion. He left the room for 10 minutes. Upon his return, his version of the solution used one less variable. He followed up with string manipulation and linked list questions.
• The fourth interviewer was an architect. This conversation was the most mature and meaningful of all the interviews that day, focusing on scaling a website, design patterns, building APIs, and similar topics.
• The last interview was with the hiring manager (whom I had spoken with before). He spoke vaguely about how they perceived every team member as a leader in their own right.

After all the interviews, I got the distinct impression they were looking for someone with fixed, narrow skills and desired specific answers to questions. The two interviews with the developers were eye-opening, and I was left with the impression that their interviewing skills were immature or untrained. I also came away feeling there was no clear career path and it was an "every man for himself" environment.

The era of asking for printf format specifications has long passed. Any half-competent programmer will figure out these tricks through repeated use of the compiler. I don't understand what is to be gained by asking these kinds of questions.

Also, having more lines of code for Fibonacci doesn't matter much due to compiler optimizations (unless, of course, you are building embedded systems and such).

You cannot have questions like these being asked when the position description asks for 8+ years of development experience. At the end of the day, I felt I had wasted time by applying for this position.