Worst Interview Experience – Felt More Like a Formality Than an Evaluation
I spent nearly four hours interviewing with two technical interviewers at Okta, and it ended up being one of the most frustrating and discouraging experiences of my career.
I came fully prepared, demonstrated strong technical knowledge, and completed the coding and problem-solving tasks correctly. Yet, the interaction felt cold, dismissive, and more like a checkbox exercise than a genuine attempt to evaluate my skills. It genuinely felt like the decision had already been made before the interview even began.
For a company that promotes fairness, inclusion, and technical excellence, I expected a much higher standard of professionalism and objectivity. Instead, the process felt biased, inconsistent, and disheartening.
Okta really needs to re-evaluate how its interviewers conduct themselves and ensure that candidates are treated with respect, transparency, and fairness — not based on internal favoritism or preconceived opinions.
I walked into the interview with great respect for Okta, but I walked away deeply disappointed and with serious concerns about how candidates are being evaluated.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
From the very beginning, the interviewers jumped straight into technical questions without any effort to build rapport or understand my background. It was clear they weren’t interested in having a real conversation — they were simply checking whether my syntax matched their expectations.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Okta (Washington, DC) in Jul 2021
Interview
I applied online in the last week of June.
I was initially contacted by their recruiter from Okta on July 7th. I had an initial screening with him early July. Post that, he accidentally scheduled another initial screening mid July which was a waste of time. We hung up that call after 5 minutes and I was asked for my availability for the next set of interviews. I provided that the same day however, I never heard back from the team at Okta for a month. After 3 weeks, I sent them a reminder and I was told that it's probably too late now as they are in the advanced stages of bringing someone else on board.
I hope you realize that time is equally important for folks outside Okta and experiences like this could be detrimental for someone who really needed that job (not my case).
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
None, never got the chance to speak to anyone from the tech team since the recruiter dropped the ball and somehow forgot that I was due for the next set of interviews.