The recruiter contacted me directly for a Data Engineer position.

I underwent the following interviews in order:

• Programming interview on Zoom and Coderpad: Two fairly simple programming exercises were presented.
• Take-home project: A simple project involving retrieving data from an HTTP link and computing the top 25 was required. The company expects this to be done as if it were a real project, including code, documentation, unit tests, and code formatting. Candidates are asked what they could improve. They tend to be picky on this one, so ensure everything is done correctly.
• Design interview: You will be asked to design an architecture for a precise application.
• Coding interview: This was similar to the first interview but involved solving only one problem with many tricky cases to handle.
• Fit interview with a Director: This interview focused on cultural fit.

The recruiter contacted me after the last three interviews and informed me that I was rejected due to my performance in the design interview. She did not provide specific details on why I was rejected, which I found frustrating.

I spent one month on this process, and while it felt like a waste of time, this is not what angered me the most.

If a company wants to be demanding with candidates, that is perfectly acceptable, but they must provide proper feedback. A candidate may spend a month on this process and not even receive adequate feedback on their rejection.

I would advise other candidates to avoid applying for this company. They are clearly aware of their desirability and exploit this advantage to discard candidates as if they were disposable paper towels.

Implement a function that checks if a pattern matches a word.