The hiring process seemed straightforward but became quite unpleasant at the end.

Talk with the recruiter: Passed. Coding exercise (string to long and trinary tree): Passed (I considered all possible corner cases and even added unit tests).

Phone interview was the worst:

1. The interviewer was 10 minutes late. I hoped the interview would be extended by 10 minutes, but it was not (though it didn't affect my answers).
2. Questions: I answered them all correctly, to the best of my knowledge, and my solutions were elegant. The interviewer seemed to have only one target in mind: not to verify my knowledge, but to ask questions I couldn't answer (but I answered them all correctly).

It seemed like he already had someone in mind, and this interview was just an unpleasant formality for him.

The next day, the recruiter pinged me back and said they decided to proceed with another candidate. When I asked for feedback on what went wrong and what I could improve, the recruiter didn't answer at all.

A few days later, multiple people told me that if you're not "buddy-buddy" with the hiring manager, you won't be hired at Zillow. I think this is 100% true based on my experience.

Oh, and that sexual harassment lawsuit against Zillow – okay, fine, it didn't affect my desire to try Zillow. Yet, a lot of my friends asked if I really wanted a job at a company with such a reputation (again, I wouldn't blame the company, just some people).

Finally, I hope Zillow's CEO is reading these reviews and takes them into consideration. If so, Spencer, there's a huge issue with the Software Development department in Zillow that you may face and hopefully will solve: "buddy-bringing" and rejecting other very good and talented candidates. It's not just one candidate who has observed this; multiple have.

If this issue isn't investigated and properly addressed, it will not just affect Zillow's reputation, but all potential candidates will avoid applying. I know you care about the company very much and are looking for areas to improve. Hiring for Software Developers is such an area, and the "buddy-bringing" problem there is very big and terrible.

"Buddy-bringing" is what makes Zillow's interview process unjust and unfair. I hope the Zillow CEO will really take this seriously and encourage fixing it.