I had a phone interview scheduled with a hiring manager a few weeks ago. That went fairly well, and I received an invitation for an onsite interview.

This would start with HR, followed by five rounds of technical interviews, and then end with a director from a separate organization.

Many of the interviewers clearly were not listening to my answers. In one instance, I was asked how one would manage/conserve power on a smartphone device. One of the answers I gave included clock scaling and voltage scaling based on the demand of the processes running. The whole time, the interviewer was checking his phone, rolling his eyes back, and in general, making it seem like I was wasting his time. When I finished answering, he asked, "What about frequency scaling?" To which I replied, "That's what I already said."

Another interviewer asked about the software lifecycle. Having a background in systems and knowing the two were familiar, I went with the system lifecycle. When I reached the verification and validation step, the interviewer had only written verification. At that point, I said, "There's also validation." Giving me a confused look, she asked if there was a difference. Even after I explained it, she asked where I got the definitions from.

Clearly, some of these people are stuck in their own world, and any outside knowledge they are unaware of just isn't possible. That's if you're lucky enough for them to pay attention to you.

I had a pleasurable experience the last time I interviewed here. Unfortunately, it was not the case this time. The people were rude and seemed extremely disinterested in the technical rounds, with the exception of one person.

What is the Nyquist rate/theorem?