There are tons of studies and writings on the pitfall of ‘first five minutes of an interview’ in professional world. Very often interviewers make initial assessments in first five minutes, and then they spend rest of the allocated time for working on confirming the initial assessments. We all, both interviewers and interviewees, are susceptible to this ‘first five minutes’ problem. Structured interview, awareness of such pitfall, training and experience help us not to fall into this trap. But my interview at Pure Storage was a very good example this ‘first five minutes’ problem. It’s a classic case study example of confirmation bias. Interviewer asked me to write function to draw circle. While writing code and engaging in conversation at the same time, it was quite clear that he was looking for very specific approach and was expecting me to write code accordingly. He wasn’t interested in different approaches and trade-offs. He was discarding other approaches with highly opinionated statements, which is a sign of strong-headedness and my-way-or-highway attitude. Within first fifteen minutes it was very clear to me that he already made his ‘initial assessments’ and rest of the interview was mere formality.