This was the worst interview experience I have ever had in my entire life. I have interviewed at companies ranging from small-scale startups to FAANG companies, and I can easily differentiate between a good interviewer and a bad interviewer.

During an interview for a Software Engineer position, a hiring manager (a woman) interviewed me. Half of the interview focused entirely on machine learning and neural networks. I had clearly mentioned my interest was solely in software engineering roles, and the position itself was for a software engineer.

Despite this, she continued to ask me questions about machine learning. The worst part came when I was asked to code out a problem involving an array. I was not given a choice of programming language that I was most comfortable with; instead, they insisted I code in a specific language.

This struck me as incredibly misguided. Any interviewer with common sense would focus on assessing a candidate's analytical thinking and problem-solving skills, not their proficiency in writing the syntax of a particular programming language. It's just syntax that needs to be perfect.

Somehow, I was able to finish the code and run it successfully. However, I spent a significant amount of time correcting syntax errors, and I believe they judged me based on that.

This was a truly WORST, WORST, TRASHY interview experience. I will never join, nor will I advise my friends to join, a firm that hires people who are good at remembering syntax instead of those with strong problem-solving skills and intelligence.

In fact, I am happy that I was rejected.

LeetCode Medium: Array Question