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Why is HR asking technical questions during a interview? (10/01/2026)

I had an interview recently and was asked an email question about how to tell if an email is fake or not. This question was asked by an HR employee.

I gave my usual answers for checking the from email address and hover over any links to see if they all match up. There are also email hints that can be enabled at a global level so that all employees can help with malicious emails. You can run an email trace to see if anyone else received the email and can remove it from user mailboxes.

She looked confused for a moment because my answer omitted email headers, which she considered the top choice.

I replied, yes, you can check the headers using websites that can analyze the headers, and it might reveal the email as malicious.

I should have expanded my answer as hackers are smarter these days and can set up a fake domain and google email address that can pass all email header checks. You need to take an extra step and analyze an address from a real domain and address that the hackers are trying to spoof.

That might reveal additional information like do they use Google or Microsoft or some other email platform to compare information.

In the end, I didn’t end up with the job. They ghosted me after my 2nd interview. I reached out a few weeks later for an update and they mentioned the position was closed and I should look out for future positions.

No Thank You!

HR is there to protect the company, not to lead technical interviews, especially when they have no IT experience. Do they realize that their company is also being interviewed?

I hate being ghosted.