What I Would Rather See
No rulebook. No formula. Just a different basic understanding, from both directions. A company is looking for someone. That person spends time, energy, and often considerable effort on the process. A short, honest response costs five minutes. Silence costs trust, and eventually something harder to recover.
Applicants are not petitioners. They are bringing something the company needs; the role would not exist otherwise. An interview is not an interrogation. It is two parties trying to work out whether there is something worth building together. That means asking questions on both sides, and forming judgements on both sides. To those who write the advice: the if-then promise is rarely honest. The process is human, inconsistent, and often decided by things that have nothing to do with the candidate. That deserves plainer language than "do this and you will get the job." It would be nice if it were that simple.