The first step would be to be clear on what you expect from the company you're applying to. Once you have that clarity, the next step would be to evaluate what a company has to offer you and how it fits into your career plan.

Based on my experience, before applying to start-ups, it's always good to talk to their current and past employees, look at the history of the founders and study the product they are building and their customers.

I completely understand your frustration having gone through the same. But looking at the positive side, you were saved from a group of people who prioritise memorising docs and single line solutions instead of the approach and conceptual understanding.

There are few companies/start-ups who aren't experienced with recruitment and make such rookie mistakes. But there are so a lot of great places which actually evaluate your understanding and approach to a given problem.