The Gotcha That Cost Me an Interview
I lost an interview after 85% of it went great—until a simple “store a post” question turned into a gotcha about over-engineering. Here’s the lesson I learned.
Yesterday, I got a rejection after an interview that went 85% really well — until the very last question.
The interviewer asked: “How would you build an API endpoint to store a post?”
Simple, right? I should have simplified. Instead, I went with a broader answer.
He said, “Imagine the sky is the limit.”
So I did — I mentioned Services, Repositories, and DTOs. I could immediately see the red flag in his face.
He asked: “Why repository if you’re just calling store?”
My answer: Repositories aren’t just about databases; they abstract the data source. Imagine your blog pulls not only
from posts you store locally but also from trusted external feeds. Now you have two implementations: an
EloquentRepository and a FeedRepository. Same contract, different sources.
I still believe that’s a valid perspective. But I realized in that moment it wasn’t about the technical merit — it was about personal preference. He’d probably seen these patterns misapplied before, violating DRY, and formed a strong opinion against them.
The position was gone the moment I gave my answer. And that’s okay. Interviews are as much about alignment of philosophy as they are about technical skill. I’ll keep refining my answers, but I won’t stop believing in clean abstractions when they make sense.