Was asked to code an app (front end and back end) with AI, had to pay for the AI usage on my own account. Rejected for using too much AI by an interviewer who said he was against using AI…

I had a great experience interviewing with Grow Therapy. The process was streamlined, the team was friendly and very human, and they focused on practical questions that represent the kind of work I'd be expected to do. Pretty standard format, recruiter chat, HM, coding, cross functional, behavioral.

Interviewers were all nice, asked if I needed to get a glass of water, etc. The interview questions were fair for the role and level. I do think it would help to be a bit more specific than “frontend live coding” and “backend live coding.” In practice, the frontend portion involved some pretty basic data sorting and state management, and the backend portion involved manipulating data. That’s not to say the solutions are straightforward. There aren’t “tricks,” per se, but you will probably be looked at dimly if you just implement the most basic/obvious solutions and don’t consider performance issues. I know everyone says “we want to see how you think even if you don’t get to the solution,” but one interviewer in particular seemed less than impressed that I didn’t just pull everything out of my back pocket. If you are like me and have a disability that likes to show up when people are judging you on live coding, even though you pair program with colleagues all day long, you might get everything working, then freeze after that, and see the interviewer’s body language go from “curious and optimistic” to “why did they send me another complete dolt to waste my time.” Then you will realize 10 minutes after the interview exactly what you should have done to optimize but it’s too late. I realize it is not a whiteboard problem and is more “real life” than most LeetCode, but anxiety actually doesn’t know the difference. That said, if you don’t have such a disability and are fine with live coding, you’ll probably do great and I assume even a mental health company is more interested in you than in me. Disappointing that “corporate policy states we cannot provide feedback.” If their legal department actually believes that a candidate would sue over some minimal constructive feedback, let alone win, that is...very interesting.