I Lost an Interview So You Don’t Have To: A Lesson in Interview Prep

Source: Dev.to

Background

I applied for a position and, after completing the technical round, was rejected. The feedback I received was:

“We’re happy with your code. Let’s meet the team and discuss it—we’d like to get to know you better.”

The word “it” turned out to be the source of the misunderstanding.

What Went Wrong

I assumed “it” referred to a project‑level discussion covering a broad range of topics such as:

• React vs. Angular vs. Next.js
• State management choices
• Memoization and caching strategies
• First Contentful Paint (FCP)
• TTL, cookies, security, observability

In reality, the next round was a simple framework‑specific interview. The team uses Angular, Vue, and Next.js, but the interview focus on Angular was never mentioned. Because I wasn’t aware that Angular was in scope, I was unprepared.

Lesson Learned

• Always ask the recruiter what to expect in the next round.
• If the recruiter’s answer is vague—e.g., “nothing much, just be there”—treat it as a red flag.
• Clarify whether the interview will be framework‑agnostic or focused on a specific technology.

I learned this the hard way so you don’t have to.