I recently went through an interview process that was honestly one of the strangest experiences I’ve had. It started with a standard HR screening where the recruiter told me I was moving forward to an introductory call with the hiring manager. I specifically asked if there would be any technical questions so I could prepare, and she assured me it was strictly a non-technical conversation focused on my professional background. However, the actual call was a complete surprise. I joined the meeting to find two interviewers who didn't introduce themselves, state their roles, or explain the position I was interviewing for. Without even asking me to introduce myself, their very first sentence was, "Hi, we’re your interviewers for today. Tell us which design patterns you've used in your past work." I was caught completely off guard and stumbled a bit initially because it was so unexpected. From there, they dove straight into a heavy technical discussion. They threw an abstract system design problem at me involving a printing system that handles specific file types, asking how I would restructure the classes, design the constructors, and organize the implementation. We also covered a lot of ground on testing strategies, including how to validate file types, run tests in parallel, and how I would break down a test suite into sanity, load, and stress testing. Despite the rocky start, I moved on to the second stage, which was a practical technical exam (this time, they did warn me in advance). The assessment involved a code review where I had to analyze existing code and explain its functionality, followed by a live coding task to implement a peer-to-peer banking transfer system. Even though I answered all the questions correctly and delivered a solid, working implementation, I didn't pass this round. Ultimately, I wasn't too bummed about the rejection. The chaotic communication and the strange vibe from that first interview made me feel like the process—and perhaps the company culture—just wasn't the right fit anyway.