The interview process involved a video call technical interview, followed by a lengthy take-home programming challenge, and finally a cultural phone interview with management.

From what I could tell, the technical interview went swimmingly. I was able to solve their code challenge in half the allotted time and had a good conversation with the interviewing engineer in the time remaining.

The take-home exercise took me a few hours to complete the bare minimum, but I spent close to ten or twelve hours on it, making it feel as good as I could, maybe longer.

The cultural interview was a little shaky.

• The interviewer called my phone ten minutes later than scheduled.
• The questions were very open-ended, so I answered to the best of my ability.
• They seemed to be wanting specific answers to very vague questions, but again, it's hard to say.

The interviewer very suddenly cut the call off while I was asking questions. She was nice enough to at least answer my remaining questions via email afterwards.

After that, the company didn't reach out or contact me whatsoever for nearly two weeks. I had to nag my recruiter to eventually find out they weren't moving forward but couldn't provide any feedback as to why.

It's immensely frustrating to spend that much time on something to be ghosted by a company. At least tell your candidates why, and tell them directly!! Extremely unprofessional and a terrible experience. Stay away if you value your dignity.

Why do you want to work for Plaid?