Initially, I felt I had a good experience, but only as time went on did it turn negative.

I applied for a position and heard back from a recruiter. She was nice, and I received a short, take-home assessment.

After passing that, I scheduled a three-hour block comprising one-hour coding and two one-hour system design interviews.

They went well, and after passing those, I had a hiring manager interview.

After doing well in all the above and receiving purely good feedback—no negatives from any point in the process—I was passed over in favor of another candidate. I was promised they would reach out as soon as another position on the team opened up and was told to reach out if I saw a different relevant position.

This is all fine. However, when I did indeed reach out regarding new positions on their careers page, I was told there were other candidates in the same position as me and I should wait for the team I previously interviewed for to open up a new role.

Even when applying about five months later to an entirely different position with a different recruiter, they synced with the previous recruiter and said it "would be best to wait for a role in the (previous role) domain," after they mentioned I have some sort of "domain-specific experience" (which I absolutely do not).

This left me extremely confused and disappointed. After having a positive experience previously, this was frustrating and disheartening.

Take-home assignment, system design interviews, coding interview