I interviewed at UpStay, a subsidiary of Plusgrade. The initial interview was conducted online and served as a preliminary conversation to get acquainted. During the meeting, the interviewer asked about my background and experience. I also took the opportunity to ask several questions about the company, but unfortunately, I encountered multiple red flags. The interviewer was unable to provide clear answers to some critical questions and appeared evasive when pressed, which raised concerns. Despite this, we agreed to proceed with the next stage—a technical interview. However, a few days later, over the weekend, UpStay canceled the interview without providing a clear explanation. This cancellation confirmed the concerns I had following the initial interview.

I went through an interview process at Plusgrade that included two stages: the first was a one-hour conversation with a team lead, followed by a 90-minute live coding interview. The technical difficulty of the task was reasonable, but unfortunately, the overall experience was very negative. At the beginning of the coding interview, I encountered permission issues on their end that significantly delayed my progress. I called the interviewer during the session to ask for help, but he responded curtly and dismissively, despite the problem being on their side. Additionally, I was not informed in advance that the interview would be conducted without screen sharing and that the interviewer would not be present for most of the session. I had tried to ask beforehand for more information about the format, but it wasn’t clearly communicated. When the interviewer finally joined, instead of providing constructive feedback, he made disrespectful and condescending remarks. Although he initially said I could ask for extra time, when I did, he criticized the request, said it was unacceptable, and claimed he would have completed the task in under an hour. He eventually granted the extension, but only after a long monologue about how inappropriate it was — and refused to look at the code I had already written. Because of the unprofessional attitude and lack of respect, I chose to end the interview midway. Unfortunately, my impression of the process was one of poor communication, lack of transparency, and a dismissive approach from the very beginning.