Ridgeline Software Engineer interview questions

I was given an initial interview with the hr rep, and then an algorithmic technical screen which I passed. A week later they scheduled the react test screening. I probably could have looked over the requirements in greater detail but it was confusingly worded and weirdly described. At one point, it said to submit the answer only when all the answers were invalid. They had two software engineers look at it which in my opinion made it more awkward as instead of it feeling like a genuine conversation while I coded, it felt like they were just watching and criticizing. Also it involved some use of an api I had never used, and one of the interviewers seemed annoyed with me I didn't know it. After I finished it, the interviewer told me he wanted a more generic solution, but the solution he described was incomprehensible. If they had asked for a generic solution, I would have given one, but I'm not a mind reader. I completed the react part of the screening. Overall not terrible but far from a good experience, I don't think I was truly assessed well and wish they would have given a clearer, more succinct version of their problem. It is their loss though, I am an excellent UI engineer and exactly what they were looking for.

I interviewed for a software engineering role. They say they want to steer away from brain teasers. Which already is a red flag to me since, that implies that they believe they have a better way to assess candidate. Anywho, the challenge is implement something in React with their given criterias. The idea is to simulate real working environment. Welp, This of course doesn't work. Because, in a real environment you don't get penalized when you found took the wrong turn in implementation choice. In the real world, you simple revert your changes and restart where things were working. But in the interview, you must know the perfect path to implementation in one go. In short, be prepared to read the interviewers mind and get the most optimal implementation from him within the time constrain and while he is watching you code. If you don't implement it in the way they expect, you are out. Well, so much for improving the brain teaser questions traditional way. While brain teasers are not perfect, they are still around because they avoid exactly this issue. The issue that, the passing/failing of a candidate is not depended solely on the opinion of the interviewer rather there is a clear score that puts a number of the candidate. The score certainly does gauge the candidates competency but at least, it's a game with clear boundaries.