I was interviewed at Bectran in March 2025, and the entire process took about 2-3 weeks. I applied online for a Software Engineer position, which primarily focused on a Java tech stack, with a mention that knowledge of ML and data science would be helpful but not mandatory. The process began with an initial phone screening to discuss my background, interests, and salary expectations. This was followed by a Java assessment, which had to be completed within 12 hours. The coding challenge was of easy to medium difficulty and could be solved with prior practice. Based on the results, candidates were moved to the next round, which involved solving a hard LeetCode problem in Python, along with 30 multiple-choice questions covering ML, Python concepts, data science, and math. These questions had four identical options, making them tricky. I believe this aspect should have been clearly highlighted in the job description, as most of the description focused on Java, with only a single line mentioning ML and data science. After clearing this round, I was invited for a technical interview with Sajal, an SDE who seemingly needed someone for his team. This 30-minute interview was quite an unpleasant experience. It started with two common questions: "Tell me about yourself" and "What is your experience with Java?" Sajal then provided some details about the company and the role, stating that Java and SQL knowledge were the only requirements. This was surprising because the job description explicitly listed enterprise-level skills such as Hibernate, Spring MVC, jQuery, microservices, Python, and firm experience in ML and data science algorithms. During the interview, I was asked to share my screen to solve a medium-level LeetCode problem related to pages and user visits and to write pseudocode for it. I implemented it well in Java using data structures. Sajal then asked how I would solve it without using data structures, which I assume was to assess my approach to optimizing space complexity. At the end of the interview, I inquired about the hiring reason, and Sajal mentioned that because the company is small-scale, employees are expected to learn and implement new technologies independently without asking too many questions, despite the low wage. This response did not surprise me. Overall, the process was fast, and the difficulty of the interview depended entirely on the interviewer’s mood and, unfortunately, nationality. If you are Desi, I’d recommend skipping this application. Additionally, I found the technical interview to be unprofessional—Sajal was yawning, and the interview was conducted in an open space with people walking around. On the positive side, Hayden was very professional and helpful throughout the initial screening, which I appreciated. After this experience, I wasn’t surprised to see why the Glassdoor reviews for Bectran were negative.