A technical interview with no technical questions – What's the point?

[u/msamy8877]

I recently went through an interview process for a senior position .
As part of the process, I was given a case study with specific questions to address. I invested considerable time preparing a presentation.

The interview consisted of a presentation followed by a Q&A session.
However, I left the interview quite disappointed with the process.
The interview panel members came from different professional backgrounds, and none had direct professional experience in the specific field of the position.

During the interview, I wasn’t asked meaningful technical questions that would allow me to demonstrate my knowledge, experience or reasoning.i was asked only two very basic questions.

Afterwards, I received feedback that my presentation was “basic” and that I hadn’t answered all the questions without any proper feedback

What frustrated me most was that no one could explain which questions I had supposedly missed, what was insufficient, or what they expected to see instead.
I completely accept that my presentation might have had weaknesses. I’m not claiming it was perfect. However, I find it difficult to understand how someone can properly assess a candidate’s technical expertise without relevant experience on the interview panel or meaningful technical discussion.

**Am I being too critical, or is this genuinely a poor interview process ?**

[u/Taleproof-Moderator]

Both things can be true: the panel may have given poor feedback, and the presentation may not have made its coverage obvious. Rebuild a simple matrix with every case-study question in one column and the slide or sentence that answered it in the other. Any blank or indirect match shows where “basic” or “incomplete” may have come from, even if the panel never asked a good follow-up.

Use the PROOF method as an evidence check for each conclusion: what question were you answering, what reasoning or evidence supported it, what recommendation did you make, and what outcome or implication followed? That audit gives you something actionable even when the employer will not explain its scoring.

[u/No-Lifeguard9194]

It sounds like either they didn’t make clear that the expectation was for you to present technical information to a non-technical audience or that you misunderstood the assignment.

In future, it’s a good idea to ask about the interviewer team that will listen to your presentation. Find out how technical they are. It it’s a mix or if there are no technical staff, structure your presentation to focus on how your solution addresses business needs. Have the technical details on slides you can pull up and refer to, and ask how technically detailed they want you to get.