I was contacted by a recruiter for a newly posted role and went through the initial discussions. During the call, I learned that several candidates were already in the final interview stages, even though the posting was only a week old.
This mirrored a previous experience I had with the company earlier in the year: strong technical interview performance, but the position was already filled.
The recruiter I spoke with was polite, but the lack of upfront transparency about the real hiring status made the process feel like a formality rather than a genuine opportunity. Be sure to ask early in the process whether the role is actively being hired for or if there are already candidates in final stages.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
“Tell me about a time you made a significant impact on a project.” I found this surprising for an initial screening, especially since the recruiter already knew I had interviewed for a similar role a few months earlier.
I applied online. I interviewed at Ridgeline (New York, NY) in Jan 2026
Interview
Interview process started out pretty normal. Call from the recruiter to get some background and schedule a meeting with the Hiring Manager. The recruiter didn't seem too interested in the conversation. Cut me off a lot while I was explaining my experience, still I passed to the next round.
The conversation with the hiring manager was a deeper dive into my experience as an engineer. There was a particular project I worked on that the HM seemed really interested in. Really knowledgeable person. This portion of the process was refreshing.
Then there was the technical... This interview wasn't difficult at all. Surprisingly easy actually. Just a simple DSA problem in an online IDE to test problem solving skills. You'd think the point of this type of interview is to be a bit conversational and display teamwork rather than just hammering out a solution. The interviewers also conveyed this before I started. As I'm working through, I'm trying to convey the solution I'm working toward, but the interviewers give very little feedback. To the point where I felt like them being there was just a distraction. My code worked first try, passed the test cases I set up with the interviewers, and in my opinion it was very clear I didn't use any LLMs for help. Things seemed great.
A couple days later I got the bad news; won't be moving forward with my application. As I'm applying for jobs a week later, I see the same job posting has been reposted a day ago. Even worse, another job on here was reposted right before my interview, but they told that applicant the position was filled. I don't think these people are actually looking to hire anyone. Don't waste your time.
