I recently had a very disappointing and disorganized interview experience with Arondite. The issues began immediately with poor communication and scheduling. Nobody showed up for my first-round interview, forcing me to waste time waiting on an empty call. After they apologized and rescheduled, they rescheduled the second stage at the last minute. To top it all off, they completely ghosted me after that final stage. While I was willing to overlook these initial red flags, the interview process itself was deeply flawed. They claim the first stage is a simple "phone screen," but it is actually a full-on technical round requiring you to solve a Leetcode problem live on Codepen via video. After passing this, I explicitly asked recruitment how to prepare for the next stage. Applying for a frontend position, I asked if I should study frontend topics. I was told no—that all engineers face the same process, and I should focus entirely on complex data structures. They also sent a generic list of tips, like "think aloud" and "consider scalability," which the interview panels ultimately ignored. The second stage was onsite, and the environment was incredibly cold. The moment I arrived, I was ushered into a room, handed a laptop, and told to code immediately, with zero time to catch my breath or break the ice. Despite spending two weeks studying complex data structures based on their explicit guidance, the technical exercise provided was a frontend question. When I pointed out that I had been misled, they scrambled and swapped it for a standard OOP backend question instead. The system design round was equally frustrating. It was framed as an architectural discussion, but the panel became hyper-fixated on calculating a specific trigonometric function. Even though I explained the high-level logic and tried to steer the conversation back to the actual system, the discussion was blocked from moving on to the rest of the architecture. Overall, this was a bizarre and negative experience. I do not understand companies that obscure their hiring process, ghost candidates, and maintain a "gotcha" attitude. Interviewing is stressful enough without dealing with misleading preparation advice and rigid interview loops. Arondite seriously needs to streamline their communication and teach their engineering teams how to conduct a basic, empathetic conversation before demanding live code

After filling in the application form I got a very quick response (less than 24 hours after) to schedule an initial interview with another software engineer. Friendly interviewer with standard intro Qs and a straightforward programming exercise in any language. I didn't look up the company on here beforehand (which I guess I should have), but as earlier poster said they asked about how much thought I had given to working in the arms industry, moral views etc. so I guess they are looking for some thoughtful serious answers (e.g. there are good essays related to this from a16z [from an US perspective] - I would imagine it would be good to memorise some points), and people who are really enthusiastic about the company's mission. Canned rejection email a day later.