Grapevine digital interview questions

After an introductory call, which was meant to describe the role and establish salary expectations, an on-site interview was scheduled, in which we discussed my experience, the company and the position in much more detail. The final step was an interview with the CEO. The whole process took a couple of weeks.

I went through 4 interview stages, starting with a technical screening and later meetings with the upper management (CPO and CEO). The whole process lasted one week. The first 3 interviews were a positive experience. I received clear and concise feedback on the technical interview and I was briefed on the position and general company culture. The overall communication with the team leader and CPO was very smooth and pleasant and I was given clear indications they were satisfied with my technical level and overall interaction. The last interview with the CEO was a polar opposite. She was trying to deduce my age with various questions, such as date of university entrance, previous years of experience etc. She fixated on that, even after making it clear I was trying to establish boundaries. As a late entrant in the tech field, I try to avoid disclosing information regarding my age. Age discrimination is illegal in the EU and employers do not have a right to this kind of questions. After showing obvious signs of frustration for not getting a precise answer, she proceeded to make multiple personal questions, with the pretext that she was trying to deduce whether I was a good cultural fit, while questioning the validity of every answer and avoiding touching on technical skills and overall competence. The experience made it obvious that this was a toxic workplace with complete a lack of boundaries and made me contemplate rejecting a potential offer. After another week, I received a generic rejection email with zero feedback.