At first, there was the phone screen, nothing special, just the usual questions.

There were two home assignments with specified timeframes:

• React-related questions without using external resources (45 minutes).
• Autocomplete React + TypeScript component fetching data from an async remote server (90 minutes).

Requirements were that it should use React hooks and no external libraries. The input text should be highlighted on the options, with basic CSS, nothing fancy. A bonus was offered for loading external data from a real API.

Oh, and a "perfect user experience" – without specifying what that means.

Obviously, this poor description meant trying to mind-read and interpret the author, which would take more than 90 minutes if working from scratch.

It's certain that other applicants will use external resources to answer questions and use existing code for the Autocomplete, and may invest extra time. There is no way for them to enforce these demands, so it's more like a filtering method than actually checking for skills.

Apparently, there is a lot of competition for the position, so there are many applicants (allegedly).

The home assignment was checked a full week after I sent it back, and I received no confirmation of them even receiving it. I thought at first they had simply ghosted me. I believe they had forgotten about me or ghosted me because they only replied back after I checked with them after a while and admitted to having done nothing.

The feedback I got left the impression that they barely checked the exercise, other than a short glance. According to what I understand, some aspects of "perfect user experience" include:

• Controllable status of the component – You should ask which they prefer.
• Loading external API data may not actually be a good thing. I’m not sure. Perhaps you need mock data and then add an option to use a real API?
• Debounce and sanitize user input + fetch.
• Allow the keyboard to move through options and alter the options menu scrollbar accordingly.
• Error handling for failure to fetch data.
• Hide options after selection or when leaving component focus.
• Contrast strongly between background and text colors.
• Style and CSS should probably be more than just basic.
• Show a message to the user when data fetch brought no results.

The reviews regarding the company were not very good, especially regarding their work practices and work-life balance, so I only wrote a simple, basic implementation and didn’t spend more time than the specified timeframe. I didn’t think spending extra time was worth it. I also had a suspicion, especially after their above-mentioned "forgetfulness" / near-ghosting, that they are so disorganized that each developer evaluates the code differently from the next developer. So, it could also be a question of luck. I wouldn’t be surprised if one developer would evaluate you poorly for a controlled component, while another would praise you for it. So, you should ask a lot of questions before you implement or use an existing solution. Better yet, ask them for an existing example of a "perfect" component to emulate instead of guessing.

I also came to realize later that I actually know a guy who now works there in a technical management position who could possibly have had something to do with the review process. The review was negative, and my relationship with that other person was also negative. I wonder if that person was involved somehow. But anyway, as long as he’s there, I’m definitely not going to have anything to do with Deel, and I wouldn’t recommend it to my friends to be working with that person. (If I had known that manager started working there, I would not have applied. So, I hope others can gain something from this review).

It's likewise possible the technical requirements for the coding assignment, "perfect" user experience, were skewed due to external influence and thus very open to interpretation, so a different person might encounter different results.

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