This was by far the most disorganized and unprofessional interview process I’ve experienced. For an L1 position, I was grilled with L3-level technical questions, complex Routing & Switching troubleshooting, multicast edge cases, and scenario-based problems far beyond the scope of an entry-level role.

The panel consisted mostly of engineers with just 2-3 years of experience, who seemed to be reciting questions verbatim from certification guides or AI-generated scripts rather than assessing real-world competency.

The hiring manager (who only revealed his role mid-process) pressured me to disclose my current CTC and salary expectations prematurely, insisting it was necessary despite this being inappropriate for early technical rounds. When I politely declined, citing that this discussion should occur with HR later, he asserted his authority as the hiring manager and forced the conversation. This felt like an attempt to lowball candidates rather than assess fit.

To make matters worse, the process dragged on for over two months with zero transparency. After enduring four rounds, I was ghosted completely – no rejection, no feedback, just radio silence. The lack of respect for candidates’ time and effort is staggering.

The interview was completely ridiculous for what was supposed to be an entry-level position. They grilled me on super advanced networking scenarios that even their own team clearly didn't understand. I'm talking about complex packet-level troubleshooting and network design questions that would be unreasonable even for senior engineers.