The entire interview process started off on quite a negative note. I had a recruiter reach out to me to give me details about the position, interview process, etc. Midway through our discussion, she stopped me rudely by saying that "my accent is problematic and would ensure that I wouldn't be hired at Qualtrics." I had no idea what to comment on this, as I'd worked as a software engineer for quite some years now. I had even interviewed many times and had no issues in being understood so far! She went on to further explain that my manner of speaking was to be expected as I was from a certain country, but would surely hamper my career growth if not changed.

Regardless, the prescreen went off smoothly. During the virtual on-site, most of the rounds with the hiring manager and technical rounds with the engineers went off fine, except one round where the interviewer just remained silent for the entire duration of the interview, neither providing hints nor course correction when needed. I ended up trying out many approaches at the end and could only put out a brute-force solution, as it turned out all the expected cases weren't explained to me right at the start.

Needless to say, by the end of this round, I knew that it would be a reject and I wouldn't be getting the offer. A simple rejection email would have sufficed. But two days later, I received a call from the same recruiter who very rudely went on to explain how I had failed the technical interviews, as my fundamentals were sorely lacking.

Interviews can be a hit or miss, as it can depend on various factors like the questions asked, the approach taken to solve the problem, etc. But the least that can be ensured is that the recruiters are easy to deal with and courteous, at the very least. This was the rudest encounter I've had with a recruiter in all my years of interviewing so far. Needless to say, I would not be pursuing opportunities at Qualtrics any longer.

Medium level questions on String, Math