Applied through their job site to a position that turned out to not match my interests. Recruiter convinced me to continue the application process by looping in another clearly hesitant recruiter from the group I was actually interested in working for, with the assurance that I'd be interviewing for positions on both teams. Phone interview was very easy and I received positive feedback from both the interviewer and recruiter, who set up an in-person interview.
After the in-person was arranged, original recruiter called to say that the position on the other team - the only reason I had continued with the process in the first place - was gone (despite still being up on their website). He assured me that it was not a bait-and-switch, which confirmed without a doubt that it was.
Went ahead with the in-person for the experience. Full day of interviews, with questions ranging from specific coding tasks out of an undergraduate data structures&algorithms textbook, to extremely open-ended design, to repetitive inquiries into personal achievements. Some of the interviews went very well, some merely okay, and the recruiter promised I'd hear back within a couple days.
After a highly positive initial response from the recruiter, I was told that they "really tried to place me in the group but couldn't find a position that was a good fit," which is the strangest "no" I have ever heard or heard of.
