The process took two weeks.

• "Stalking" recruiter emails.
• Recruiter call and initial alignment.
• Signing NDA.
• System design presentation.
• Backend interview.
• Rejection.

My last interview round was full of red flags. Before my last interview, I was asked to complete a questionnaire about the preferred stack. I chose Node.js. I indicated that I didn't have a preference for which interview, frontend- or backend-focused, should go first. The recruiter reached out specifically to get my choice on that.

The interviewer asked the "Where are you?" question before even turning his camera on. After hearing, "In California," he double-pressed, "No, where are you located? I see you're not in an office."

Then, he shared a link to a place with some pseudo-Rails code. I expressed that I had chosen a different stack. To which he replied, "Oh, [the recruiter] and [the director] had a miscommunication about this. We can reschedule it if you are not ready." Am I?

I responded with humor that the last thing one would want is to signal a potential employer that they are not ready. I embraced the challenge, as I've worked with Rails since version 1.2.4, and we continued. The interviewer issued several compliments along the way, like "You are way more senior than I, and I like how you approach this and that," which on the spot sounded as if to soften the kiss-off.

Even though I never applied for the position, after this weird round, I received an ATS robo-rejection email thanking me for my interest in the role. "Unfortunately, we won’t be moving forward with your application."

And that was it. It left me puzzled, though. When exactly did I apply for the position?

I cannot post the code because of the signed NDA, but I can share that the coding problem—if it had any design at all and was not just a piece of legacy junk—aimed to confuse. The initial code was not a legit Rails app or even correct Rails code. The instructions had humorous acronyms for the system and its parts, as if the former mattered, as if those acronyms were in the code.