The wierdest interview that I ever had. I was referred by a recruiter. Before going for the interview, the recruiter told me that I had to bring a pad, a pen and 3 copies of my resume. If I don't have these things, they will send me back home. So, I dressed up in my penguin suit, got a fresh new pad, pen and 3 copies of my resume and went to the AOL office I was greeted by the facilitator who led me into a small meeting room. The first part of the interview was a "coding challenge". It wasn't a coding challenge. It was a bunch of multi-choice questions that tested your knowledge about Java syntax. One of the questions had badly indented code. It looked like someone had mixed tabs with spaces and didn't realize that it looks bad printed out. I was thinking whether this is a test of my Java knowledge, or they are testing how well I read badly indented code. One of them even asked me to pick which function would be used. I picked the one that looked most appropriate, and wrote on the border that I usually look up the API in the Javadocs, and I don't remember the exact API. They gave me 30 minutes for this, and it took like 7. Since, I had time, I went back to the answer sheet and put in notes to explain each of my answer choices in detail. Then, the facilitator took the answer sheet, and 5 minutes later 2 people showed up to interview me together. The first one took a look at me, then took a look at my resume again, then took a look at me, got up and said "I forgot something. I need 15 minutes. I'll be back in 15 minutes". She exit stage left. No explanation. I was wondering if there was something stuck in my teeth or whether I had a BO or something, or maybe she had the runs. I don't know. I never found out. It's kind of unprofessional. The guy who was left asked me whether I have worked in Java 7. I said no, so he proceeded to ask me Java 6 questions. Again, these were basic syntax questions mixed in with questions about concepts in core Java. I did well in the core questions, but I don't remember most of the API. At one point, I said "I'm sorry but I don't usually remember all the API because I rely on the IDE". He said "yes, All of us get lazy" Lazy? Who you calling lazy? I was getting a bit annoyed on the focus on remembering the APIs, like they were in pre-online help days where you had to open a manual to look at the API. After this guy was done, he was waiting for the woman who was going to come back in 15 minutes, but she never showed up, so he left. Then 2 more guys came in, and I had a much more interesting interview. They talked about how I did cloud analytics at my previous job, and this is something that I have spent considerable time on. I talked about how I designed the platform, and what considerations went into the design. They presented problems and asked me how I solved them. It was very interesting. However, it was clear that their tech stack was much different than mine, and they were definitely looking for someone who can hit the ground running. I would need a month or 2 of ramp up time, and they could probably find someone else who does have those skills. The lady who had run came back and escorted me out. Again, no explanation about what happenned. Oh and out of the pad, 3 copies of resume and pen, I used only the pen.