I was contacted by an HR recruiter and asked to submit PHP/Python code. I also spoke with the HR recruiter on the phone.

Subsequently, I was contacted by the team lead for a phone screen. He discussed the position and his role.

He asked me about object relationships and how to model a One-to-Many relationship and polymorphism. He also inquired about how to find telephone numbers in static HTML files located within a nested set of directories. Additionally, he asked how to determine if the Nth digit of an integer was a 0.

Following this, an in-person interview was scheduled.

Upon arrival, I was taken to a small, dingy room that appeared not to have been cleaned in some time. Dust and signs of a rotten ceiling were present on the windowsills.

The first interviewer entered, introduced himself, and immediately went to the whiteboard. He described a nested list of lists problem, where all values were integers, and asked me to return a string of all the integers in the structure. I solved this using recursion and Python. He made a comment about recursion.

His next problem was to shuffle a list of integers. I had no issues with either of these problems. Notably, there were no questions about my Python skills.

The next interviewer was the nicest and also the eldest. He asked about my work, my accomplishments, and my interests. I admitted that my SQL skills weren't terrific, as I tend to use SQL wrappers. Since I wasn't applying for a DBA position, this didn't seem like a problem to me.

He presented an incorrectly designed database with a Many-to-Many relationship and wanted me to extract values. I struggled through the proper joins and syntax, but he acknowledged that I understood the concepts, just not the execution. I explained my thought process and what I aimed to achieve. I found it difficult to gauge his reaction.

There were no questions about Python during this interview.

Next, two interviewers entered: the hiring team lead and another team lead. They sat on opposite sides of the table, with me in the middle, and conducted a "good cop, bad cop" routine.

The hiring team lead rarely turned his head to look at me while speaking. He was focused on the "good cop" as if he had no desire to be there or engage with me. I was so put off by his demeanor that when they presented the problem, I had no inclination to try and solve it on my own.

I struggled and prolonged the problem-solving process as much as possible. I could sense his frustration, which, to my surprise, made me feel a little pleased.

Finally, with considerable assistance, I completed the problem. They asked a few follow-up questions about it.

They then left, stating they would send the next interviewer. However, they returned two minutes later and informed me that everyone was drunk and I should leave. He stated they were looking for "more of what we have; Python and SQL skills." He then said, "Thanks for coming in," and walked out of the room.

He did not escort me out or say, "We'll be in touch." He simply left the interview room, leaving me behind.

I should mention that I had an interview that morning at a different company. They took me to lunch and made an offer. I really wanted the FlipKey position more, but I was so put off by the team lead I would be working for at FlipKey that I came close to leaving in the middle of the interview.

I'm not sure if the guy thought he was Steve Jobs, or if I had somehow secured an interview for a position he had already decided I wasn't qualified for. He also belittled my current employer's company name when we first started the interview. I couldn't tell if he was joking, but the other guy made a comment that suggested it wasn't a joke.

I'm not sure how to gauge this place, but I was close to physically confronting the guy in the interview, so clearly, that job wasn't for me.

Transform an integer to a string using only arithmetic operations. Known in C as 'itoa'.