Techie Asked To Draw Indian Flag During Job Interview, Here's What Happened Next

A seasoned tech professional in Bengaluru with 10 years of frontend development experience recently shared her infuriating job interview experience on Reddit. The interview, held at a small company near her residence, took an unexpected turn when she was asked to draw the Indian flag and Ashok Chakra using the programming language CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Initially, the interviewer posed theoretical CSS questions, but things took a strange turn when she was tasked with creating the flag. Despite finding it "completely absurd," she complied. However, her patience wore thin when she was asked to add spikes to the Ashok Chakra. At that point, she decided to walk out.

The techie expressed her frustration, saying that she expected advanced questions aligned with her expertise, not trivial design challenges.

''Generally, at this experience level, people ask more real-life scenario-based questions or coding skills to test logical thinking or some advanced concepts. But here this woman asked me to draw the Indian flag using CSS. Before this question also, she was only asking theoretical questions based on CSS. I drew it anyway. I find this question completely absurd. Then she asked me to make Ashoka chakra in that. I made it. Then she asked me to draw spikes inside the Ashok chakra. There I lost it. I asked her for reasons for such kind of questions. She said that she wanted to test my knowledge. Now if you are a frontend developer, you will see such questions don't make any sense. We used to get such questions during college practical exams. I get really irritated. And I quit my interview,'' her post read.

The techie concluded her post by seeking feedback from fellow Reddit users. She asked if others had experienced similarly perplexing interview challenges and solicited opinions on how companies can refine their hiring methods to prioritise relevant skills and expertise.

See the full post here:

Interviewer asked me to make Indian flag using CSS and i am 10 years experience in frontend.
byu/sabki-bajaungi indevelopersIndia

The techie's post garnered a mix of reactions from Reddit users. Many empathised with her frustration, sharing similar experiences of being undervalued or tested with irrelevant challenges in job interviews. On the other hand, some users offered an alternative perspective, suggesting the interviewer might have been testing the techie's creativity, problem-solving skills and willingness to adapt.

One user wrote, ''I think, they were not seriously taking the interview or the interviewer didn't have frontend knowledge. She might have thought in frontend people only do drawings but use code.''

''I think this is a good question for freshers. For someone with 10 years of experience, this would be totally unexpected and unnecessary,'' remarked another user. 

A third commented, ''As soon as you said they asked you to create the Indian flag I knew where the twist was gonna be. I feel she was just tired of fake people who have good theoretical knowledge and zero practical knowledge. Also, she might have been bored and wanted to give you something easy to get the job and be done with the interviews.''

A fourth added, ''That test was not for your skills but temperament.''