Landing a dream job is no easy feat—especially when candidates have to endure unexpected, confusing, and sometimes downright bizarre interview experiences. While most aspiring professionals expect a mix of technical grilling and personality assessments, what they often face instead is an unpredictable rollercoaster led by recruiters who seem to have forgotten the purpose of the interview itself. A recent story shared on the subreddit Developers India pulled back the curtain on just how strange the hiring process can get.
MS Paint, Strange Shapes, and a Puzzle from Nowhere
A tech professional recounted an interview with a European-based company that took a turn for the surreal. According to the post, the interviewer, without any formal introductions or context, opened Microsoft Paint and began doodling. The result? A chaotic collection of shapes that resembled a toddler's experimental art project. Once he was done splashing random colors across the canvas, he turned to the candidate and said with a straight face, “Write an algorithm for this.”
There was no input. No expected output. No explanation. Just a vague instruction and a cryptic visual prompt.
Understandably, the candidate was thrown off. “For a good minute, I genuinely thought this can't be real,” he wrote. Eventually, he figured out that the task was related to something known as the paint fill problem, inspired by the classic flood fill algorithm. But the lack of context and the dramatic presentation made it feel more like a prank than a legitimate challenge.
The post quickly sparked a flurry of responses from fellow developers who had similarly puzzling or invasive experiences during interviews. One user described how a supposed technical interview veered off track almost immediately. “He asked me if I had any siblings in the industry,” the commenter wrote, “then followed it up with whether I thought they made the right choice by joining this field.” What was intended to be a skills assessment session turned into an unsolicited family counseling session.
“You Don’t Need Money, Right?”
Another respondent recounted being asked about his family background—not once, but in all four rounds of interviews. Eventually, the CEO himself told the candidate that he didn’t really need money and should be content joining the company for a salary lower than his current one, which was already modest. “My previous salary was in single-digit LPA, and they still wanted to slash it,” the candidate noted.
A One-Round Circus of Randomness
Perhaps the most outrageous account came from someone who had faced a barrage of unrelated questions—all in a single campus placement interview round. These included, “What does your father do?” and bizarrely, “Did you get compensation from the Jewar Airport land acquisition?” Adding to the chaos, the interviewer asked whether the candidate would be willing to relocate to Bangalore—despite the job being based in Noida.
Between questions about IPL teams and random LeetCode problems tossed in mid-conversation, the entire session left the candidate baffled and frustrated.
These stories, though hilarious in hindsight, underline a more serious issue: the lack of professionalism and structure in interviews across various companies. For candidates, it’s a reminder to prepare not just for technical questions—but for the unexpected.
MS Paint, Strange Shapes, and a Puzzle from Nowhere
A tech professional recounted an interview with a European-based company that took a turn for the surreal. According to the post, the interviewer, without any formal introductions or context, opened Microsoft Paint and began doodling. The result? A chaotic collection of shapes that resembled a toddler's experimental art project. Once he was done splashing random colors across the canvas, he turned to the candidate and said with a straight face, “Write an algorithm for this.”
There was no input. No expected output. No explanation. Just a vague instruction and a cryptic visual prompt.
Understandably, the candidate was thrown off. “For a good minute, I genuinely thought this can't be real,” he wrote. Eventually, he figured out that the task was related to something known as the paint fill problem, inspired by the classic flood fill algorithm. But the lack of context and the dramatic presentation made it feel more like a prank than a legitimate challenge.
The post quickly sparked a flurry of responses from fellow developers who had similarly puzzling or invasive experiences during interviews. One user described how a supposed technical interview veered off track almost immediately. “He asked me if I had any siblings in the industry,” the commenter wrote, “then followed it up with whether I thought they made the right choice by joining this field.” What was intended to be a skills assessment session turned into an unsolicited family counseling session.
“You Don’t Need Money, Right?”
Another respondent recounted being asked about his family background—not once, but in all four rounds of interviews. Eventually, the CEO himself told the candidate that he didn’t really need money and should be content joining the company for a salary lower than his current one, which was already modest. “My previous salary was in single-digit LPA, and they still wanted to slash it,” the candidate noted.
A One-Round Circus of Randomness
Perhaps the most outrageous account came from someone who had faced a barrage of unrelated questions—all in a single campus placement interview round. These included, “What does your father do?” and bizarrely, “Did you get compensation from the Jewar Airport land acquisition?” Adding to the chaos, the interviewer asked whether the candidate would be willing to relocate to Bangalore—despite the job being based in Noida.
Between questions about IPL teams and random LeetCode problems tossed in mid-conversation, the entire session left the candidate baffled and frustrated.
These stories, though hilarious in hindsight, underline a more serious issue: the lack of professionalism and structure in interviews across various companies. For candidates, it’s a reminder to prepare not just for technical questions—but for the unexpected.
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