A recruiter contacted me on LinkedIn for a new Greenfield project at JPMorgan Chase that was still a secret.

After the initial chat with the recruiter, there were three rounds of interviews:

• Live code: This was an array exercise with medium complexity, and the goal was to solve it in the most efficient way possible.
• System Design: I had to explain how I would design a payment system.

I passed these two interviews, and then the last one was a 45-minute cultural fit interview with the project DM, who is based in NY. It was a disaster.

First, the guy said he was busy and wouldn't be able to be at the interview for the full 45 minutes. He then proceeded to ask a question that is very common in these kinds of interviews, and which the recruiter had even told me he was going to ask. However, he asked it in a slightly different way, with the aim of playing some mind tricks on me.

After my response, he asked me why I answered that way, since it was not the question he had asked. He then went on a philosophical lecture about how people assume things or not. After a few attempts at clarifying things with him, he finished the interview.

This seemed very unfair to me. In my long career, I've never had to deal with something like this.

I believe this guy is doing JPMorgan a disservice because he is rejecting many perfectly capable, talented, and experienced candidates (and I'm not necessarily saying this just for me; the same thing happened to a couple of my ex-colleagues) just because their brains don't work exactly the same way as his.

System design on how to create a payment service.