I had an initial interview with a recruiter, who explained that the next round would be a non-coding interview focused on conceptual design and behavioral questions with a panel consisting of two senior data scientists and the AI product manager. However, on the day of the interview, only one data scientist attended. The product manager briefly joined midway through the meeting for about five minutes, did not engage in the conversation, and then left. In the final 20 minutes, the interviewer unexpectedly shifted to a coding exercise. I politely declined, explaining that this was not what I had been told to prepare for and offered to reschedule so we could align expectations. The next day, I was rejected for declining the coding test and for “lacking experience with OpenAI’s APIs,” despite not being asked a single question about them, and noting that API usage is generally similar across platforms. Overall, it was a disappointing experience. The process felt disorganized and misaligned, and the team did not seem well-prepared or respectful of candidates’ time.