It was a pretty strange process.
First, I had a quick screening call. The person was asking scripted questions, showed very little emotion, and there was no real connection at all. Still, the feedback after that call was positive.
Then I had a second interview. The way the interview was run felt very similar. It was impossible to break the “official” atmosphere, which, to be honest, is not something I’m used to. Usually my interviews are with people who have a positive attitude and try to create a more relaxed and friendly environment. Here, that was definitely not the case.
The interview felt focused purely on asking questions from a script. I was not given a chance to introduce myself, and there were no questions about my previous role or background.
The very first question was: “Why should you avoid using the array index as a key when mapping over an array in React?”
Honestly, that completely threw me off. I didn’t really know what to say, because I’m not good at answering very specific, theory-focused questions straight from memory under pressure. After the interview, when I had time to think about it calmly, I realised what the question was actually testing. But at the time, it broke my rhythm and the rest of the interview didn’t go the way I wanted.
I was asked around five questions in total. This one I remember very clearly. There were also questions about React hooks and what useCallback is used for, but I don’t really remember the rest.