Contacted by HR recruiter asked to submit PHP/python code. Spoke with HR recruiter on the phone. Contacted by the team lead for a phone screen. He spoke about the position and what he does. Asked me about object relationships and how to model a OneToMany relationship and polymorphism. Asked how to find telephone numbers in static html files located in a nested set of directories. Asked how to find if the N-th digit of an integer was a 0. An in-person interview was scheduled. They took me into a small dingy room that had not been cleaned in some time. Dust and rotten ceiling were on the window sills. First interviewer came in, told me his name and immediately went to the white board describing a nested list of lists problem where all values were integers and wanted me to return a string of all the integers in the structure. I used recursion and python to solve he made some comment about recursion. Next problem he gave was to shuffle a list of integers. No issues with either of those problems. No questions about my python skills. Next interviewer was the nicest, also the eldest. He asked me about my work, what I have done, what my interests were. I admitted that my SQL wasn't terrific since I use sql wrappers. I wasn't applying for a DBA position so in my mind this didn't seem to be a problem. He presented an incorrectly designed DB with a ManyToMany relationship and wanted to get values out. I struggled through the proper joins and syntax but he admitted that I did know what to do just not how to do it. I spoke through each step and what I wanted to accomplish. I couldn't gauge him well. No questions about python. Next, 2 interviewers came in. The hiring team lead and another team lead. They sat at opposite sides of the table with me in the middle and played a good cop bad cop routine. The hiring team lead rarely even turned his head to look at me while speaking to me. He was staring at the 'good cop' like he had no desire to be there or speak with me. I was so put off by his demeanor that when they asked the problem I had no desire to try and figure it out on my own. I struggled and dragged on the problem as long as I could. I could sense him getting frustrated with me and it kind of made me happy. Finally, with a lot of help, I got the problem finished. They asked some follow up questions about the problem. Finally, they left and said they would get the next interviewer but came back 2 minutes later and said everyone was drunk and I should go. He told me that they were looking for "more of what we have; python and sql skills." Then said thanks for coming in and walked out of room. He didn't walk me out or say we'll be in touch just left the interview room and me in it.
I should mention I had an interview that morning at a different company. They took me to lunch and made an offer. I really wanted the FlipKey position more. But I was so put off by the team lead I would be working for at FlipKey I came close to just leaving in the middle of the interview. Not sure if the guy thought he was Steve Jobs or if I had somehow got an interview for a position he had already decided I wasn't qualified for. He also belittled my current employers company name when we first started the interview. I couldn't tell if he was joking but the other guy made some comment as if it wasn't a joke. Not sure how to gauge this place but I was close to cold cocking the guy in the interview so clearly the job wasn't for me.