I applied for staff through a referral and went through a phone screen and virtual onsite, which were of average difficulty.

After the onsite, I was told there was a chance of a downlevel based on interview feedback. I was asked if I wanted to continue with a downlevel, to which I reluctantly agreed.

Following this, I was asked to complete a four-hour take-home coding exercise and provide three references.

After speaking with all the references, I received a call from the recruiter stating that the hiring committee believed I did not meet the bar.

This has been by far the most humiliating experience in my interviewing career. Why proceed with a candidate through a take-home exercise and reference checks if they do not meet the hiring bar? After all this, the recruiter did not even have the courage to provide detailed feedback and babbled through the call.

There was no respect for my time. I understand this might happen to one candidate out of a hundred, but there is no room for such a process.

NDA, so I can't give exact questions.