I had what I thought might be a first interview but instead was a quick screening with HR that could have been done via email and a random technical question thrown out of the blue with no context. What is the difference between LRS and ZRS? It threw me off guard but then I realised it was Local vs Zone Redundant Storage in Azure, LRS being in the same datacenter between availability zones, and ZRS being geographically located in another physical datacenter in another region. The process progressed into a Hackerrank test, 60 mins and 10 questions which seemed simple enough. However, the site seems more geared towards developer questions and the line of questions was a bit off-topic, random and specific asking questions on mTLS that aren't exactly in the top of my head, and the order in which root, intermediate or leaf certificates expire is something I have never discussed in my 25+ year career in IT. A lot of questions were spot the subtle difference in syntax of long-winded commands so it was truly unfair and seemed designed to trip candidates up for no reason other than to guarantee more failures. I was sent another test the next data for Lead DevOps engineer but I ignored it, I'd seen enough and was rejected soon after anyway, which came as a relief.

The interview started without the person introducing themselves. Asked multiple questions that they could have requested by email before scheduling an interview. I was asked if a client asked you about the difference between two acronyms which I didn't know what they stand for and this was without giving me any context. The interview ended there. I was told they can't proceed if I didn't know the answer. Very poor process and reading the reviews, it seems I dodged the bullet.