I initiated the process by contacting an HR directly on LinkedIn for a referral. This was followed by a brief screening call where he asked about 10 basic questions before scheduling the first formal interview. And lots of unncessary background things like college name, uni name grades etc. Round 1: basic coding questions focusing on Pandas and SQL. Round 2: Case Study for the team applied - It was on demand forecasting for multiple inventory items. We had a detailed discussion on relevant approaches, including using XGBoost, various feature engineering techniques, and model selection. Round 3: VP Discussion - This was entirely a resume deep-dive. We went through each position and tenure on my resume and asked for detailed explanations of responsibility on that role Warning for Other Candidates- The interviews in all three rounds seemed to go very well, and I felt confident I had answered all questions successfully. However, at the very end of the final round, the VP asked for my previous manager's name. He explicitly stated this was "just for a seniority check" and assured me that they would not contact this person without my consent. I was rejected shortly after this round. Based on how well the interviews went, I have a strong suspicion that they did contact this reference without my permission, and this may have been the deciding factor. Advice to Management Please be transparent with your hiring process. If you tell a candidate you will not contact a reference without their explicit consent, please honor that agreement. This creates a more trusting and professional candidate experience.