This was probably one of the longest interview processes I had to go through. The recruiter was wonderful. She was always very professional and responsive.

First, I had a phone interview with the hiring manager. It was a straightforward conversation, and he asked me to provide some pseudocode on how to square a number using their online tool. These were standard algorithm questions, which I answered correctly.

Afterward, the recruiter said it went well and that she would be in contact with me about the next steps.

A week went by, and she called me back, telling me I had to write an Adobe Air or Java application using the Facebook API's.

I thought it was a bit much for them to ask me to spend my time writing something I would not be getting paid for. I really wanted the job and to impress the hiring manager, though, so I spent my free time over a two-week period making something that looked great and worked really well.

It then took them two months to review the application. To me, this was totally unprofessional and kind of a slap in the face. The recruiter was in contact with me the whole time and told me they were all busy with their big change to the privacy features.

Finally, the hiring manager looked at the application, but the recruiter told me they wanted someone else internal to look at the code as well. She told me they were impressed with the application and had rejected a lot of other candidates' applications right away.

I sat in limbo for another few weeks while another person looked at the application. The recruiter then called me back to tell me that the position I was applying for was dropped. Not that they hired someone else, but that they changed the role I was applying for completely.

I think the software engineering interview process has hit an all-time low.

First, they make the engineer jump through hoops of logic games. Then, spout out algorithms and uses of design patterns like robots. Finally, you have to spend your free time writing something that they are only going to throw in the garbage. We have all really fallen to a sad state.

Write some pseudocode to raise a number to a power.