Then you say: oh, that's odd, a friend of mine also applied, and she had way less experience than I do, and was accepted.

Most will simply reply with "Well, I'm not aware of that application. I'll have to check with our hiring department to find out what happened there, and if we have any further information we'll contact you."

Even if you do manage to talk to a hiring manager directly they're already prepped with prepared PR talking points. They will simply say... "Sometimes people with less time in the career field who come from under-privileged or under-represented groups can share experiences that many of our other team members don't have. So what they lack in career experience they make up for in other cultural values, and since we believe in the equity of diversity, we felt they would be a good fit for the team."

This has happened multiple times across multiple industries where completely unqualified individuals were hired for managerial positions based on race/gender (and bonus points if it was a minority female). One department was given the excuse that such diversity hires bring a "different perspective" to the field and it could help bolster engagement (newsflash: it did not bolster engagement, it did the complete opposite and the department was completely shut down a couple of years later).