The interview process began with a call from a recruiter who reached out on LinkedIn.

This was followed by a call with a senior manager, which was moderately technical.

After confirmation of follow-up, meaning being asked to schedule another interview, there was no response despite several emails and phone calls.

I was only contacted back a couple of months later by another recruiter. I learned that the earlier recruiter had left, and her notes were the only means of tracking my application.

I then scheduled another interview with the same senior manager, only to discover it was incorrectly scheduled and should have been with someone else.

Finally, a coding interview was scheduled with one person via HackerRank. However, two people showed up, and they seemed a bit too casual, to the point of feeling rude. There were no introductions or pleasantries; they quickly moved to a coding question.

The question asked was not particularly unique.

I clearly outlined my initial thought process for an O(n^2) solution as well as a better O(n) solution and asked which one they preferred.

Their response was unusual: "It's okay to attempt the O(n^2) one if you are not sure you would finish in time."

I implemented the O(n^2) solution, struggled slightly with one test case, but then fixed it.

I then outlined the O(n) solution, but there wasn't enough time (strictly 45 minutes). They abruptly ended the interview.

I received a rejection later.

The bottom line is, especially when recruiting for a manager role, if you require an O(n) solution only, why waste time asking someone to code a less efficient one? Why not clearly state the expected benchmark for passing the interview?

I might have been able to finish the more efficient solution in time too. However, when given the choice, I selected the easier-to-code one. To me, this indicates a lack of preparation before the interview.

Combined with the previous scheduling issues, this experience leaves a pretty bad impression of the company.

C++, memory understanding, etc. Array-based algorithmic questions.