The interview process began with a phone call from the Engineering Manager to discuss my background. The second stage was a technical interview involving a live coding session. This is where things became frustrating. The coding challenge was provided in a GitHub repository ahead of time, which I genuinely appreciated — it allowed me to prepare thoroughly before the actual interview. Not many companies offer this kind of transparency. I spent the entire day before the interview working on the problem, and after solving the initial requirements, I continued refining my approach. Eventually, I developed a simpler and more effective solution than the common ones I’d seen. During the interview, I explained my solution in detail. As we were running out of time, I showcased a working version I had prepared on a separate branch. The interviewer even said, *"Well done, mate!"* — which gave me the impression that the interview had gone exceptionally well. Naturally, I was shocked when I received a rejection notice. I immediately asked the recruiter for feedback, as I was completely confused by the outcome. The feedback claimed that I had made a “foundational mistake” during the interview — something that simply did not happen. In fact, the interviewer asked whether there were alternative solutions, and I explained one briefly. I even asked if they'd like me to switch to that approach, but they encouraged me to continue with my current solution. After going through many interviews over the years, this was the first time I received feedback that was entirely inconsistent with what occurred. There was no indication during the session that something was wrong. This feedback was unhelpful, vague, and left me with nothing constructive to work on or improve. It felt like the interviewer misunderstood my solution and was expecting a more conventional approach. Instead of asking clarifying questions, they seemed to dismiss it entirely, jumping to the conclusion that it was incorrect. That’s a failure in the interview process. If a candidate presents a valid yet unconventional approach, the onus is on the interviewer to probe further before making a judgment. This experience suggests a lack of openness to diverse problem-solving approaches — a red flag about the team’s culture. Based on this, I wouldn’t recommend the company to others in my network.