A twist happened when they announced that using LLMs in a pair programming coding interview round is permitted. I welcomed that news, thought to myself "Well that's a first, they must be true to their AI pivot" and skipped on Leetcode prep as LLMs are faster in implementing leetcode questions than I am at my top typing speed. I analyzed what else it's possible to spend an hour pair programming on if LLM is solving menial coding. I've had some pretty good ideas what excellent signal can be extracted from coding interview without coding part. Well, uplifted, I go into an interview and I get a straight leetcode question (that I didn't practice before). I attempted to use LLM but was stopped "because it would just give you an answer". I was permitted to ask it anything, but nothing that relates to the coding problem itself. I spent a minute trying to understand what use I can get out of LLM with these constraints, and decided to wing the problem myself instead, and failed the interview. In my opinion, the only credible outcome from asking candidates that question can be if they have seen and done that question ever before - it becomes significantly easier if you did. Choice of the coding question also suggests they are not differentiating coding rounds between different pipelines. Pair programming part that was heavily advertised was absent as well. It was just a standard coding interview. I don't mind, companies are free to select candidates in a way they see fit. I do, however, dislike when I have been misled in my preparation efforts especially since this round was advertised so uniquely so I was working on other skills that are not used during standard coding rounds.

Recruiter reached out to me, shared detailed JD and sent a link later to pick a time slot for first round of interview. They did mention the interview process is 5 rounds - 1) With Hiring Manager 2) Pair Programming 3) Life Story with HR 4) Technical Round-1 5) Technical Round-2. The hiring manager discussion was good, detailing about my work experience and discussion to identify if the job is right fit. Within one day recruiter informed that we would be proceeding further, asked me to go through Short Assessment (Cognitive Aptitude Test) and sent link to pick time slot for second round. Second round was Pair Programming interview (Programming language of your choice), after which I didn't get to go through remaining interview process. They did provide interview result update by next working day.