If You See These Red Flags in an IT Interview — Run (Real Stories)

By Sylwia Laskowska on Feb 18, 2026. Originally published on DEV.to.
If You See These Red Flags in an IT Interview — Run (Real Stories)

We often prepare for interviews by polishing our CVs, grinding LeetCode, and rehearsing answers to “What’s your biggest weakness?”
But we rarely talk about the other side of the table.

Because interviews aren’t just about companies evaluating candidates.
They’re also a window into how a company thinks, communicates, and treats people.

And sometimes, that window shows more red flags than a beach on a stormy day 🚩

I originally planned to write about WebGPU this week. But I fell into a deep research rabbit hole and honestly… I’m not coming out anytime soon 😅 So that post will probably arrive in a week or two.
Meanwhile, this topic has been on my mind for a while — actually since I wrote Your GitHub Contribution Graph Means Absolutely Nothing (And Here’s Why). I kept postponing it, but my main thoughts were slowly evaporating. So I guess its time has finally come 🙂

I’ve been on many interviews (and I’ve also conducted over a hundred technical interviews myself). I remember most of them as perfectly normal or even positive experiences — even when I didn’t get the job.

But some of them? Absolutely horror stories.

This post won’t be an HR guide or a “how to interview” tutorial. These are real stories — mine and my friends’. All of them actually happened. And they show how weird, chaotic, or simply unhealthy recruitment can sometimes get.

Grab some popcorn 🍿

⏳ The Recruitment That Lasted a Year

This one isn’t about me, but a close friend. I won’t name the company, but think big, famous corporate. If you’ve ever written export class, or even just bought a computer, you definitely know them.

My friend applied and waited a month or two for a response. Then:

The manager liked him a lot… but didn’t need him. Another team did, though. So:

Then silence. For months.
No one from HR could even say what was going on.

After several more months (!!!), they came back.

And guess what?
Just one more technical interview, two live coding sessions, and a take-home task… and he’d get an offer 😀

Yes, for a regular developer role.
With a lower salary than he already had.

He declined.

👉 If a company can’t organize its own hiring process, imagine how they organize their projects.

⚖️ “How Much Do You Value Work-Life Balance?”

This one is mine. Actually, more than once.

I once filled out a form for a unicorn startup. One question was:

“How much do you value work-life balance? (1–10)”

Let’s be honest — I doubt they were looking for people who value it highly 😅

To be clear: I do value work-life balance.
Yes, I sometimes code at night, write articles, explore new tech. But I like the freedom to not do it when I don’t feel like it. To watch a series or read a book (currently polish noblist Olga Tokarczuk ❤️).

I’m also realistic. Sometimes you push harder near deadlines. Sometimes weekends happen. That’s part of the job.

But if during recruitment someone digs too deeply into your overtime tolerance — be careful.

I once ignored my intuition and joined such a startup.
10–12 hour days. Constant pressure. Endless urgency.

I lasted a year.
That was the average frontend tenure there.

I learned a lot, yes. Probably the most of any job.
But you should enter that world consciously — not by accident.

👉 If a company treats overwork as culture, believe them the first time.

👀 “Who’s Helping You There?”

A friend of mine was interviewing for an automation tester role.
Combined manager + technical interview.

Manager part? Great. She was impressed.

Then came the technical part. The recruiter quizzed her almost like a Python documentation exam.

She answered well, but then paused for a second, thinking how to phrase a more precise answer. Her gaze drifted slightly to the side while thinking.

The recruiter interrupted:

“What, is your husband helping you from the side?”

She politely ended the call.
No apology ever followed.

This story still shocks me. It sounds like a bad joke, but it wasn’t.

Imagine saying to a male candidate:
“Oh, your wife is helping you?”

Exactly.

👉 Disrespect during an interview is a preview of your future workplace.

😤 Offended Recruiters

Another of my stories.

Multi-stage recruitment, weeks long. Final stage — a discussion with developers after a technical task.

There was one tricky security-related part in the task about passing data from host to child. I secured it minimally, knowing it wasn’t perfect.

They pointed it out. Fair.

I was genuinely curious how they solved it internally. It was an interesting technical challenge.

Then they explained.

And… their solution was extremely vulnerable.
Like “people could potentially use their app for free and leak client data” vulnerable.

I thought I misunderstood and asked follow-up questions.
Nope.

They insisted it was “sufficient” and that the data “wasn’t that sensitive” 😅

To this day I don’t know if they rejected me for questioning it or for my poor TypeScript answers later on. 🙃

👉 If a company is defensive about flaws instead of curious, that’s a red flag.

🎥 Total Surveillance Mode

Last one 😀

A friend got a recruitment task on a HackerRank-like platform. Sounds normal, right?

Except:

All to ensure the candidate wasn’t cheating.

For a regular SaaS company.
Not nuclear code. Not Area 51.

In the era of AI, what does this really test?
Memorized syntax? LeetCode muscle memory?

👉 If a company assumes you’re a cheater before you even join, trust works both ways.

🤔 Final Thoughts

Interviews are a two-way street.

You’re not just being evaluated — you’re evaluating them too.

A bad interview process often reflects a messy culture, poor organization, or lack of respect for people’s time.

Sometimes the best offer…
is the one you decline.

What about you?
Any recruitment horror stories or red flags you’ve seen? 🚩

I’m genuinely curious 🙂