Unprepared interviewers and an overall process that lacked visibility and meaningful feedback. I applied online and was given a 20 minute test covering open ended questions on software engineering, clean code, databases and related topics. After completing the test there was no follow up. 3 days later I reached out myself and was then sent an interview invite with the hiring manager. The email provided no context on what to expect whether the interview would be technical or non technical which is generally considered a basic expectation in a structured hiring process. The interview itself felt unstructured and awkward from the start. The hiring manager opened by saying this was a new process for them and they were not sure how to begin. That is something that should be resolved internally before involving candidates. There was no proper introduction or effort to ease into the conversation just an abrupt request to discuss my projects. When I asked which project they would like to focus on the response was essentially you decide. Typically interviewers guide that choice based on what they want to evaluate. This came across as a lack of preparation or engagement. During the discussion the manager seemed unfamiliar with fairly standard backend concepts reacting with surprise to things that should be well within an engineering managers scope. That made the interaction feel even more off. Later I was asked to review a merge request written by the interviewer. I clarified whether the focus should be on design or correctness. Initially I was told design and I pointed out issues around lack of single responsibility and poor abstraction etc. This led to a defensive reaction with the justification that it was a small project. I provided my points on why still basic principles like abstraction & SOP etc still should be considered. When redirected to review correctness I identified few issues as most things were simply simulated so not much to comment on e.g a network call simulated by sleep(5000); So not much to talk on correctness. Overall i did a review for which i am well known at my current company as one of the best reviewer for backend MRs. The interview ended abruptly with no closing comments, no points. Once again I had to follow up after 3 days only to receive a rejection with no explanation. This entire process felt like a waste of time with minimal effort from the company to engage meaningfully or respect the candidates time. It gave the impression that hiring may not have been a serious priority or that the process itself is not well thought out. May be simply to impress investors on false expansion. Feedback to the company: Please ensure your hiring process is structured transparent and respectful of candidates time. If you are not actively looking to hire avoid putting candidates through unnecessary steps.