PayPal interview questions

It's not uncommon to do group interviews. Often, they will put you in a room with other people also applying for the job, and then have you do group tasks as a way of evaluating your interpersonal skills. Not everyone gets the same tasks but an example of something I had to do would be survival planning. The room was divided into 2 groups (my interview group was 8 people) and they gave a scenario where you're flying over Alaska when your plane crashes. You're not near any towns and so, if help is coming, it's going to take a long time and it's getting late. Here's a list of items that you or your fellow passengers have/found. Choose the 10 most important items and then sort them based on their importance. You had to be able to explain WHY it was important. Then you had to detail your plan on using those items. The purpose of this exercise was to get a feel for who was actively or passively participating. Who was problem-solving or keeping things organized? Was there confidence in peoples decision making and were they willing to/able to make a good argument for their point?

Outreach by recruiter on LinkedIn, followed by a phone interview. The recruiter was generally nice, and quickly indicated an interest for me to meet the hiring manager. They also indicated other candidates were in the mix. I offered up very flexible times, however the recruiter chose the next interview two weeks out. Meeting with the hiring manager was over video. The hiring manager showed up 5 min late, seemed disengaged and did not cover specifics. In the middle of the conversation, they let slip that another candidate they had worked with in the past and thought highly of was further along (however we both started at the same time when the recruiter outreached). I attempted to inquire but they deflected questions on it. Discussion was still pleasant. I did get a note less than a week later that they made an offer to another candidate, presumably the same one. Given the experience and details, I believe my interview was just for internal needs to enable the hiring manager to "select" the person they wanted.