I had an initial meeting with engineering manager, technical problem in a pairing type situation, and then a "culture fit" interview that did have some technical questions. The company was open about the process and responsive. It was a very positive experience even though I did not get an offer.

Their process seemed reasonable, and the one person from the company I spoke to and I had a good discussion in our interview. Was told "our process moves slowly, so go e us time and we'll get back to you with the next steps." They ghosted me at this point because they apparently hired someone else and didn't tell me the position was filled, and didn't tell the recruiter I worked with either.

Red flags everywhere. Avoid this company. Initial call was with the CTO to talk about experience. I could tell he thought very highly of himself. Started to brag about how he was brought in to revamp the entire tech stack of Sunstate to be more modern. A company in this line of business, operating at this scale absolutely does not need to waste so much money and engineering effort and hiring multiple teams for this. I feel bad for the existing engineers having to adopt such huge changes and I wouldn't be surprised if they were later laid off for their now "antiquated" skillset after they're done with all the new hiring. Furthermore, the direct feedback I was given by the CTO was completely unprofessional. Instead of just determining that my skillset and experience did not fit the role, he felt the need to insult me by telling me I was a beginner and was just trying to fake it till I make it. I can tell that this is a CTO that does not lead by compassion but ego and narcissism. After telling me with a smug smile that I could explain my projects in technical detail, he could not understand at all what I was saying despite repeating myself multiple times and breaking it down even simpler each time. What did he want me to do? Violate NDA and tell him exactly how everything was built? At the end of the call, I told him very nicely to have a great rest of day, etc and he simply smiled smugly again and waved at the camera while looking at another screen and didn't say anything else. RED FLAGS EVERYWHERE. DO NOT EVEN BOTHER INTERVIEWING.