This is from our interview research series — we aggregated 15 firsthand accounts from Anthropic ML and software engineering candidates collected in early 2026. The finding that surprised us most: culture round rejections arrive 2 to 3 days after the onsite, while technical failures arrive within 24 hours. That timing difference let us isolate where the process actually ends for most candidates who reach the virtual onsite. The failure pattern in the culture round isn't values mismatch — it's framing. Candidates who gave well-reasoned answers about responsible AI and technical rigor were rejected; the round is looking for Anthropic-specific positions, not professional values. Happy to be corrected by anyone with more recent data.