I applied online, and a recruiter contacted me two days later, stating that the engineering team directly wanted to get in touch. They then requested to schedule a one-hour phone interview. I scheduled the interview.

The interviewer called and introduced himself in one sentence: "I have been working at Robinhood for the last xyz years, and my recent project was based on xyz." He then asked me what I had been doing recently, followed by a coding question. I was expecting him to describe the role, but I assumed he would do so towards the end, which he didn't.

The question involved receiving data by calling an HTTP GET request, parsing the data, and then displaying it. Fortunately, I was allowed to use Google.

Once I started, he muted his phone, showing no engagement. He only unmuted his phone when I asked a question. It felt like I was talking to myself, which was so frustrating that I considered ending the interview mid-way. However, I continued, but I decided that I would not move forward even if they extended an offer.

The problem required me to print some integer and float data combined with some static strings. I initially decided to convert the integer and float values to strings and concatenate them with the static strings. I then realized I could simply use fmt.Printf() with format specifiers like %d and %f, or find another method. However, I decided to continue with converting them to strings. I was hoping he would initiate some conversation, but there was no engagement. Perhaps he was working on his own tasks and was only interested in the final output.

One thing I didn't know was how to convert a string representation of a time into a Unix timestamp. For the last fifteen minutes, I asked if he wanted me to continue (converting the string timestamp to Unix timestamp) because I wanted to ask follow-up questions. He said I could continue for perhaps five more minutes. After five minutes, he asked if I still wanted to continue working on it. To that, I replied no, I would like to ask some questions. I asked him a few questions, and that was it. Two days later, I received an automated rejection email.

It is surprising that, unlike the Robinhood app, their interview process is not great.

Call HTTP GET and parse and display data.