My interview process was "interesting," to say the least:

• It first started with an interview with the recruiter for a regular screening.
• Then, there was one technical screening with an engineer where we spoke about Linux.
• After passing that, I went to a virtual onsite with three back-to-back tech interviews, followed by a values interview.
• I got feedback from the recruiter that I made it to the final round, which was to be a conversational/behavioral interview with the hiring manager.

The situation got shady from here. The hiring manager, who I would describe as the typical white tech bro in the Silicon Valley culture (nothing wrong with that, by the way), joined, and asked me a few behavioral questions. Then, he said, "Let's go to a CoderPad link." Keep in mind, the recruiter said this would be a pure behavioral interview and that he might use CoderPad to draw out some diagrams to walk through different situations. This statement was a lie. He first prompted a problem to me, which you can find on LeetCode (2 Sum). I solved it within 5 minutes. Then, he gave me this esoteric LeetCode-level hard problem with 20 minutes to answer. The problem was Integer to String. I solved it in a couple of scenarios but did not have time to explain it all. Keep in mind, this is one of the engineer's comments regarding the problem on LC: "If you get this question, you have already failed the interview. They simply want to fail you, and even if you pass the question, they will find another reason to reject you. The interviewer will simply be on his phone checking Reddit while you are frantically writing out the dictionaries, thinking there is some hope for you."

I then received a call from the recruiter saying that I did exceptionally well in the interview process and that the reason they weren't moving forward was that I didn't solve the technical problem in the bait-and-switch interview. I then explained what occurred at the last interview. I then gave some feedback to the recruiter, citing two things about the interview process I found concerning:

1. All my interviewers were white tech bros that knew each other—no diversity in the interview panel at all.
2. The interview process was not clear and transparent about what you would be tested on and how you would be graded. The Palantir interview process currently lends itself to gross systematic unconscious bias.

The recruiter admitted on the phone that my experience was irregular and that something was afoot. I didn't have the language to express what was happening until I did some digging afterward. Palantir has recently been brought to court, calling out their practices of racial discrimination in their hiring practices by the Department of Labor (google it for yourself; Palantir settled).

I reached out to an employment lawyer, and their feedback was this is pretty common for underrepresented groups (which I am a part of). Which is very, very, very concerning, as this is a company that is working with the CDC and doing COVID work, which we all know disproportionately affects people of color.

I do give the recruiter credit for reaching out and trying to rectify the situation initially. But she has recently ghosted. Right now, I am at the stage where I am in talks with civil rights and employment lawyers, which were referred to me by the Department of Labor.

My advice to people interviewing is to make sure that the recruiter spells out the process, and if you feel you are in a bait-and-switch interview, do not hesitate to call them out.

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