I had a phone screening call with the recruiter where I discussed my background. During the call, she mentioned this role was filling in for a vacancy and that it was a popular role so they were looking at many candidates and she'd get back to me in a couple days.
The interview went well, with no hiccups, and I believe I was very well-qualified for the role given my background. The interviewer was a bit patronizing. One thing to note was that the interview process she outlined for me seemed to have 4-5 phases including a coding assessment.
She emailed me a few days after the screening call to say they were moving forward with a few candidates. The day after my rejection email, I saw the job reposted on LinkedIn, showing that they were looking for even more candidates, contrary to the recruiter's message.
Based on this, it seems like this company may not seriously be interested in hiring a candidate, may not recognize qualified candidates (or don't outline all requirements in the JD if they are looking for something very specific), and may also take up large amounts of your time with interviews if they do move forward.
