Too many theoretical questions from a non-technical recruiter. She read questions from her screen, and after I started not to answer them properly, she told me I should not proceed because the following interview processes would be even harder.

I felt like I was back at university, where I had to cram all the answers to questions to get a good grade, but would later forget everything I studied anyway.

I'm a practitioner. I can tell you in detail what I worked on, what systems/technologies I've been using, what I know about programming, the languages, and the related libraries. I can discuss the difficulties I've faced in my career and the results I've achieved.

She mentioned the working hours are flexible, but there can be strict deadlines and significant stress. This company is a big no-no. It feels like this company isn't for creative people, but for those who know the answers to scripted questions.

Pre-made, scripted questions:

• Which Java versions did I use, and for how long?
• Concurrency questions, such as optimistic/pessimistic locking, and concurrency difficulties at my current job.
• Data structure questions, like the time complexities of a hashmap.
• Database questions, such as what ACID stands for, what data type an index is made of, and what isolation level my current project is on.

Etc.