The interviewers lacked technical expertise in the field they were hiring for. They merely asked questions and evaluated candidates based on whether they used certain keywords, without truly understanding the subject. The process felt pointless.
They gave me a task to set up JWT authentication with MongoDB and Express for the backend and create a React page for login and landing within 1.5 hours. However, the system they provided didn’t even have VS Code or a Node.js environment installed. I had to spend around 20 minutes just setting up the necessary tools before I could even start coding.
They vaguely instructed me to "generate tokens" and create a signup/login page. Since the task assigner wasn’t providing clear details, I assumed they wanted JWT authentication with protected routes and proceeded accordingly. When I asked for clarification, they simply repeated "generate tokens." It was clear they had no real understanding of what they were asking for.
To make things worse, they prohibited me from referring to syntax from the internet or using AI tools. Expecting someone to set up a full authentication system from memory within such a short time was completely unrealistic.
A proper authentication system with JWT issuance, password hashing, and middleware usually takes around 4 hours to implement correctly. It was obvious they had no idea what they were assigning.