The interview was bizarre and unprofessional. For context, I took part in Cognizant's Pre-Apprentice Program Fall 2022 which is a bootcamp leading up to an interview with Cognizant. Before the program we were given a tentative timeline of the program ending in December 2022 followed by an interview with a start date of ~Jan 16. The interview would be comprised of a technical question and then we would be tested on our knowledge of OOP and SQL. This sounded fair, and I had been studying for weeks after the program ended. However, December came and went and we did not hear anything from Cognizant. We were told by our program director that Cognizant is postponing interviews as they are creating a "portal" to assist in the hiring process. This did not make sense to me, because they would have had to know about this months in advance not weeks. Finally (early February 2023) we hear from Cognizant and are told we would have to do a Hacker Rank Assessment before getting an opportunity to interview. Prior to the pre-apprentice program, we were never told of having to do an assessment, so this came as a shock to everyone. During the Hacker Rank Assessment, it contained 2/3 questions that were fair for people with little experience in Java Full Stack. One of the questions included an HTTP Request which we never covered in our program leading up to this assessment, so it came completely out of left field, and felt completely unfair, and in order to get an interview you needed > 70% score. You would think they would include questions based on topics of our program. I found out I passed and was offered an interview with their Digital Engineering healthcare team for a Software Developer position. Per the email, "The digital engineering unit is currently in the process of interviewing resources for future hiring need." The wording was weird and I figured I would ask what that meant in the interview. Finally, I had my interview yesterday. Leading up to this interview I was never asked about my availability, and they just assumed I would be free on their date at their time. Luckily I was free, and did not have to reschedule. The email also explained, "This is a technical interview so be prepared to answer any question related to full stack-java, including logic." I had not been practicing algorithms for a while and with only a 48 hour notice, I was nervous and freaking out. Throughout the days leading up I had to cram and review as much as possible thinking I would do horribly. To be frank, my interview was weird as hell. The interviewer was 15 minutes late, he asked if I was a cognizant employee (look at my resume), and then just asked about my general experience with Java. No OOP or technical questions at all that was mentioned in the email. The interviewer also rushed me and asked, "Do you have any questions? I have a meeting after this." I eventually asked if there was another interview after this to test more of my skill set and he said I do not think so. I also asked for a tentative timeline about when this position would start, and he did not know that either. He did not know when I would even hear back after this interview. This was maybe a 10 minute conversation and it felt like a complete waste of my time and his. To sum this all up, the program lead us on. I know Cognizant does not have the best reputation, but after speaking with a cohort before mine I felt reassured that this would be a legitimate opportunity. I can confidently say if you interview with Cognizant just be apprehensive and make sure you get all of your questions answered. Do not let them rush you out of your interview. This is your designated time with them, and if they are late for their next meeting so be it. I have yet to receive an official offer nor have I been rejected. However, if I were to be offered a position today, I would strongly decline based on my total experience thus far. Thank god the bootcamp was free.