Internal recruiter called me after applying online. Asked me about my background and experience and said position was entry-level and I'd be a good fit. Went for onsite interview following week. Panel first asked me basic personality questions and then asked me more intensive Java and OO programming questions that I admittedly could not remember (i.e. why encapsulation is important).

Person on this panel made it seem like I was completely inadequate for not remembering this concept even though I demonstrated on whiteboard an example of using this method. I expected more questions on my QA experience but they didn't seem to care. It became apparent the panel and head of department had not looked at my resume beforehand and were looking for someone with several more years of experience.

Also, office had clearly had a lot of layoffs recently as it was near empty when I went in. I had to flag down someone working as nobody was there to greet me at the door for my interview. Think I dodged a bullet here, after all.

Why is encapsulation important in object oriented programming?