I was contacted by a recruiter via LinkedIn and shared my resume. A few days later, we discussed my work history in detail and I was deemed a good fit for the role. I then completed the following four rounds:
1. Hiring manager screen: Deep dive into my work/project history. I was given a LeetCode easy problem to complete during the last ten minutes.
2. Coding Round: I was asked a well-known LeetCode medium problem. The interviewers required me to do it in a language that their squad works with.
3. System Design: I was given a canonical system design question and had to define the requirements, sketch a high level design, and discuss what tradeoffs would need to be considered at scale.
4. Behavioral Round: Standard culture fit interview conducted by a Product Manager. Generic questions asking me to describe my working style and how I interact with others.
I was given positive feedback after each round, but ultimately did not receive an offer. The reason provided by the recruiter was that they were "looking for someone with more experience" in a particular technology. Despite five rounds of interviews and being contacted by the recruiter for the position, I was not once asked about my experience with said technology. I informed the recruiter of this, let them know that I had the desired skills, and offered to sit for more interviews to prove it. I received no response and haven't heard back since.
I have sat through dozens of interviews throughout my career but have yet to experience anything like this. Both a recruiter and hiring manager approved my experience only to claim it wasn't adequate after I wasted weeks of preparation.