# Five Minutes. One Question. Youre Not the Candidate We Were Looking For.

**[TRUE STORY]** — by Software engineer · startup · via r/recruitinghell

A startup interview ended after five minutes. The interviewer skipped introductions, asked a single coding question, and when the candidate answered, declared: "No, according to me, you're not the candidate we were looking for!" The candidate — who had prepared extensively and had open-source contributions to discuss — posted on Reddit about the experience. Commenters were split between "you dodged a bullet" and suspicion that the company had already decided before the call began, possibly to meet an internal interview quota for a role that was never genuinely open.

*Source: [r/recruitinghell · via Economic Times](https://m.economictimes.com/news/new-updates/still-cant-process-what-just-happened-candidate-left-stunned-after-startup-interview-ended-in-just-five-minutes-sparks-debate/amp_articleshow/132101019.cms)*
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