I recently interviewed for a senior position. The initial stages of the process, including the conversations with HR and the hiring manager, went well and were generally respectful and positive. However, the overall experience left me disappointed and felt not fully representative of real-world engineering work.

The technical interview focused heavily on recalling specific data structure names from memory rather than evaluating problem-solving skills and engineering reasoning. I was clear about the properties required for the solution and mentioned that, in practice, I would verify the exact implementation details via the Java APIs. This approach, which reflects real professional behavior, was nevertheless treated negatively.

During the interview itself, I received positive signals and comments such as "good job," which made the final feedback feel somewhat inconsistent. Expectations were not clearly stated upfront. In the system design discussion, I thoroughly covered multiple valid scenarios and trade-offs, only to later be told that a single, narrowly defined solution was expected.

Overall, I felt that the process favored rigid, pre-scripted answers over practical experience, clarity of reasoning, and real-world decision-making. I hope the interview process can be refined in the future to better align expectations and more accurately assess senior-level engineering skills.

A live coding question focused on data structures and system design trade-offs.