I had an initial call with HR, which covered the usual HR topics.

About two weeks later, I received an invitation for a second interview. This interview was scheduled to be one hour for what they call the "Life Story" and one hour for a technical interview.

The "Life Story" portion was rather unusual. The HR representative seemed to be feigning interest in my responses and didn't ask many guiding questions. No notes were taken, and we finished approximately 30 minutes early. I then waited for the technical interview.

The technical portion was conducted via coderpad.io, which was convenient as it allowed for on-the-fly code compilation and execution. The problem involved a list of comma-separated strings, requiring the output of the first "column" of each string, ordered descending by a second column and then ascending by a third column. I inquired if there was a specific method they wanted me to use, but they stated I could solve it however I preferred. After completing the task, I again asked if they wanted me to highlight anything, discuss the code, or explain my solution, but received no further guidance. They simply verified that the output matched. When I began asking questions, the interviewer seemed disinclined to provide detailed answers. That concluded the interview.

Two weeks later, I sent an email requesting an update. I received a reply stating that I would get a response within two days. When that response arrived, it indicated that I would not be proceeding, and they advised me to continue applying for other jobs, without providing a specific reason.

I have no idea how that seemingly simple exercise, which I completed in approximately 15 minutes, led to my disqualification. There was no feedback or clarity on what aspects were being evaluated. I suspect they rely more on "gut feeling" than objective metrics, using coding exercises to create an illusion of objectivity. To their credit, this approach is slightly more objective than many alternatives.

You get a list of comma-separated strings. Output the first column, ordered descending by one and ascending by the other. You can use whichever language you want.