Alert: Long post. Please read.

This hiring process has wasted one month of my time.

I was contacted by HR for an SDET-II position. After discussing compensation and other details, HR explained the entire selection process, which consisted of five rounds:

• Online HackerRank Test (Duration: 1 hour, 17 MCQs + 2 programs): 70% passing marks
• Two Technical Rounds
• Managerial Round
• HR Round

In the online test, I was able to complete one program and all the MCQs. I received confirmation from HR that I had cleared the test, and the first technical round interview was scheduled over Zoom.

First Round

After introductions, the interviewer presented an end-to-end scenario and asked me to identify all possible positive and negative test cases. I explained all of them. Then, he asked me to write a program in an online notepad. I wrote the program and explained the logic to him with a dry run. He then asked some Linux commands and SQL queries, which I answered correctly. The interview ended, and the next day, I received confirmation from HR for the second round.

Till this point, HR was very active in terms of communication.

Second Round

The interviewer asked about my current work, role, and responsibilities. He inquired about my programming language proficiency and then asked me to open an online editor for that language (I selected Java). He instructed me to write a program that finds the names of all candidates who scored the second-highest marks, given input in the format: {name1, marks1} {name2, marks2} ... {name n, marks n}.

Writing a program in an online editor is always more difficult than in an IDE because online editors lack suggestions and compilation error messages. I had to import all required packages and write the entire program without any assistance. Finally, I completed the program. There was an error on one line. The interviewer asked me to Google it and make it run. I did, and the program executed flawlessly.

Then, the interviewer mentioned he was running out of time. I asked if he wanted to connect again, but he said he was good and the next round would be conducted. He sounded very positive at the end. I must say the second round was better than the first.

I informed HR about the completion of the second round and requested feedback.

Here comes the twist in the hiring process, which the company claimed to be transparent and refined.

HR did not reply to my email for feedback. I tried to reach HR via mobile, but alas, no luck. HR kept disconnecting my calls. I tried again after 10 days, but still no reply.

Finally, after two weeks, I received an email from HR stating they had hired a candidate who was a better match for the requirements, and I was rejected. That was it.

This entire process raises many questions about Chegg's hiring process:

• No proper feedback was provided on why I was rejected.
• If there was a mismatch in requirements, why proceed with the hiring process? This whole process took around one month.
• If I was not selected, why was I kept in the dark for weeks?

After the rejection email, I again tried to reach HR to understand what went wrong, but it seems they prefer to keep things unclear.

I am confident that I cleared the second round. I don't know what fishy dealings are happening within the company or who is involved.

Searching characters in a String and its count.

Collections Sorting SQL Queries Linux commands Framework-related questions