I had an interview with Zillow on June 24th as a software engineer.

First off, the communication before the interview started off a bit rocky. My recruiter reached out to me the morning of our interview to let me know she couldn't make it. Life happens, and I completely understood, and we eventually rescheduled for another time.

Afterwards, we scheduled the first technical phone interview. My recruiter told me that it would be a typical data structure/algorithm technical screening and sent me the invite. I pride myself in prepping for my interviews thoroughly, so I looked up my interviewer's LinkedIn profile so that I could ask relevant questions about their experiences.

The day of the interview, I had spent countless hours prepping for the technical interview. The interviewer came a bit late, which is understandable, though not exactly optimal for a candidate that is in a highly stressful position that requires every minute allocated.

When the interviewer came, I noticed the interviewer was not the person that was named in my confirmation email, and thus all my prep into getting to know the interviewer's experiences was moot.

Along with that, the interview itself was not a data structure/algorithm technical screen – it was an object-oriented design interview, which encompasses vastly different techniques and contents.

All in all, I did the best I could have, and I thanked the interviewer for her time at the conclusion. Immediately afterwards, I emailed my recruiter to inquire about the recent interview. I was curious if something had happened that caused the change in interviewer and type of interview.

That email was sent out on June 24th (day of my interview), and to this day I have not heard back. After a few days, I figured, "Oh well, I'll just ask when the recruiter gets back to me regarding the result of the interview."

It's been 22 days since the interview, and I have not heard back from anyone at Zillow. I was really excited about Zillow – I've heard nothing but amazing experiences from engineers who've interviewed there, that regardless of whether they received an offer or not, the experience was humanizing and that there was thoughtfulness in the process.

Interviewers take a lot of time away from their loved ones and put in a lot of effort to enter into the interview process, and it's a shame that I felt that my experience completely missed the mark.

Q: Typical design interview questions