There's a phenomenon I've noticed in job interviews where the interviewer will in a sense torture the interviewee if it's a domain that the interviewer has expertise in, asking needlessly complex questions as if to grandstand and show off. It becomes theatrical and I can only attribute that to some level of sadism- or narcissism-like traits. I am not impugning Adora's motives here just commenting on my own experience.
I had an interviewer do that once, and it was clearly just to show that he knew more obscure technical info that I did, even though it was at a much lower level than was required for the job. The other interviewer even sighed and rolled their eyes at him, so I'm guessing it isn't the first time he'd done it.
Can anecdotally confirm this when I've been on the interviewer side, alongside coworkers who I am/was also close friends with. I'd agree with you on the traits.
I always felt really gross afterwards because I felt like the interviewee was wronged, but it just wasn't worth the potential conflict with my coworkers/friends if I did anything about it, either during or after. Walking on eggshells and all that.
