Airwallex Pty Software Engineer Interview Experience: CTO database-modeling pivot after positive signals

I went through an intense sequence that ended in a final-round rejection. After a recruiter call, I had live coding, a system-design round, and behavioral questions. The difficulty felt average until then.

The final CTO round was what threw me off. He repeated questions that had already been covered in a behavioral conversation with a senior director, then concluded that I was not a good fit. He also pivoted to a low-level question about modeling a database, which felt abrupt compared with the earlier flow.

The other three interviewers had given positive signals, but the CTO round overrode them. I failed at the end despite feeling I had performed well earlier. The final call felt detached from the rest of my interviews, and it left me feeling that a lot of time had been wasted.

Location: Vietnam. Overall feedback: negative. Offer status: no offer.