I had a call with the talent acquisition person, which lasted more or less 30 minutes. We went through the opening, and they made sure I was expecting to work at least 40-42 hours per week minimum. This first step was globally good, apart from this hours aspect, which I found rather weird.

I was then sent the home exercise. Seven endpoints to develop, using Sequelize, in three hours they say. This is totally unrealistic, given the fact that candidates do not necessarily have knowledge of Sequelize. Even with this knowledge, it would take 25 minutes for each endpoint to produce something solid, without mistakes. Rather unrealistic.

I took the challenge. I took more time to do something properly done and properly structured. I also added Swagger to call the endpoints, correctly used Sequelize, transactions, locks, and generally structured the code properly.

The feedback I had was negative because of three points: two very minor things, and one about an endpoint because I did not get a little nuance.

In the pros, there was no mention of the code quality, the division of responsibilities, the correct use of Sequelize, etc.

I think, at the minimum, I deserved to talk about my tech choices in the next recruitment step, also to be challenged. They write in the test that they do not expect anything fancy, given the time constraints. This is false; they will turn you down even for very minor imprecisions, without giving you the possibility to explain/clarify. This is quite frustrating, seeing the time spent on the task and the quality delivered.

Home Exercise:

7 Endpoints to Develop Using Sequelize ORM