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I'm sure that happens sometimes in interviews. I think more often there are multiple qualified people for a given position and the chosen candidate is the one that the interviewers feel more comfortable interacting with. People usually feel most comfortable interacting with people who have a similar background to themselves. Also, a lot of people's sense of identity, self worth, and community standing is based on their jobs. Hiring people from groups that diminish or clash with that isn't in the interest of the people doing the hiring. That's the main reason I don't think most hiring is meritocratic, including in tech.

I don't think the intent is the same. It may be that current interviews have outcomes that aren't egalitarian, but I haven't personally seen any evidence that would suggest that interview questions are specifically chosen to discriminate against a particular minority.

To be clear, I'm not saying the interview process is good or perfect or shouldn't be interrogated.

One of my colleagues loathes competitive programmers and picks much harder problems for them. His grumpy rationale is that they shouldn't have it any easier just because they do interview problems as a sport. Usually the ICPC world finalist types will still ace it since he's too dunning-kruger to judge beyond his own skill level.