A recruiter approached with questions regarding databases, data structures, Java, and concurrency. After answering them, they scheduled a first interview with HR. More of the same followed.

In the live coding interview, the interviewer gave some load balancer tasks, such as registering a unique load balancer and implementing a random algorithm to get a load balancer instance. While applying clean code practices and strict TDD from scratch, there was no engagement from the interviewer's side at all. Although I was talking through my mental process the entire time, little interaction was made.

At the end, the interviewer only asked one question in 45 minutes: "How should you make a test if you want to be certain if the random algorithm was working?" As I had already implemented a test using the simple logic of getting at least one of several instances, they said a way of doing it is trying thousands of times (exponentially speaking).

This struck me as a surprise, as tests should be deterministic, and the given solution is not deterministic at all. This also didn't take into consideration the CPU and memory wasted. I mean, it's a random algorithm.

After one day, they vaguely replied that "after much consideration, we have decided not to proceed further with your application, as we require more specific knowledge to be successful in our recruitment process." That was it. I have no idea what this means. No feedback. No explanation after surviving one hour of me trying to read the interviewer's reactions.

The only "humane" part was the contact by the recruiter. All the rest was a set of trap questions that you must answer in a specific way.

This was my second and last attempt to join this company. After giving them some credit, the process is flawed. They are looking for someone who would answer exactly what they want to hear.

Give me examples of concurrency problems.

Give me one example of an algorithm to store data in a database.

What's the difference between sharding and replication?