Arc Institute interview questions

I interviewed a while ago but still occasionally think about how horrible the process was. Multiple zoom calls, an extensive unpaid work test, a long trip required to interview in person, and at the end HR responded (a week after they said they would) with simply "we are not moving forward with you". It was disappointing, but I also felt I dodged a bullet, if that is how they treat people.

I applied online and received an email about a week later asking to schedule the first interview by video call. I responded asking for the format of the interview but received no reply. Given the time difference it would have been kind of them to schedule the interview say early morning their time, so it could have been evening for me, But I interviewed at midnight and was greeted with "good afternoon" - the interviewer was clearly oblivious to the time difference, despite my resume clearly mentioning my location and discussing Visa sponsorship. Since they hadn't responded to my question about the interview format and since this was the first interview and since it wasn't with the hiring manager, I assumed (wrongly) that it would be a recruiter screen, but it ended up being a full-blown interview that caught me off guard. I received an email a few days later saying that they would not be moving forward with my application. I messaged the hiring manager asking to reconsider the decision, they were kind enought to respond and forward my request to the interviewer. But the interviewer emailed me the next day saying that they were looking for "something a little different" with no other feedback. I've interviewed before over the years for similar roles, and the interview format is always clearly mentioned and the decision has always been taken by the hiring manager ( no one else) and after completion of an assignment sent by email. That such a major decision can be taken so quickly and in such a manner was shockingly new to me. Apart from all this, when I asked a question about career progress prospects during the interview, the interviewer responded very vaguely.