Exceptional

Just wrapped up a full interview loop for a senior software engineer role at a series B startup. Multiple rounds, strong feedback throughout, and at one point the recruiter explicitly told me they were leaning toward making an offer. Got the rejection email on Friday. They said it was a close decision and that they went with candidates whose experience more closely aligned with their current needs. They were pretty transparent about the fact they had given positive signals earlier and that this wasn't about any major gaps on my side - just relative fit in a competitive pool. They offered to set up a detailed feedback call, which I'm planning to take but have not heard back from recruiter. For context, I have 5+ years of experience working on distributed systems and data pipelines. Currently a senior dev at a mid-large company. A few questions for people who maybe have been through this: 1. How common is it to get positive signals and then get passed over at the end? Is this just how competitive pools work? 2. For those who've done feedback calls after a close rejection — did you get anything actually useful out of it? 3. Has anyone successfully re-applied to a company after a rejection like this and gotten an offer the second time around? This experience has me a little disoriented given all the positive signs but the last minute rejection so would appreciate any advice. Thanks fam!