Smartsheet Software Engineer interview with next-day rejection

I had a pretty typical early sequence: an HR screener followed by a technical interview. In the technical round, I solved everything the interviewer asked me to solve. The next day, I was rejected, which caught me off guard.

From the explanation afterward, it sounded like there were many highly qualified candidates, and my performance alone wasn't the deciding factor. That made the whole thing feel like a waste of time, even though the interview itself was straightforward.

There was no offer, and the hardest part was not knowing what had been missing. I only knew that my performance wasn't enough relative to the applicant pool.

Location: Bellevue, WA. Overall feedback: Negative. Offer status: No offer.