A recruiter reached out to me, and I had a good chat with an engineer at Splunk. I was invited on-site and performed five hours of interviewing with several different engineers from different teams. The actual interview was fine; the engineers seemed friendly and interested in what the company was doing. Overall, I think we had good conversations.

This is where the positives stop. Before I interviewed at Splunk, I read on Glassdoor about recruiters just not responding after an on-site. This came across as a pretty big flaw in character for the company if it was true, so I took the reviews with some doubt. How can a large company like this act so poorly with candidates?

I've also asked colleagues around the Bay Area who have interviewed at Splunk, and they recited the same story: ghosted by the recruiter after the on-site. These engineers went on to obtain positions at Google, Apple, and Facebook.

Well, it's true. After the on-site, there's no communication at all. Splunk feels you don't deserve any further correspondence whatsoever. Dead. Nothing. Nada. You no longer exist. Candidates will definitely notice this, since in the days and weeks leading up to the interview, the recruiter will be in contact constantly.

Splunk, candidates are taking their time off, most of the time taking PTO days, to perform several rounds of interviews with your company. They are preparing and sacrificing other opportunity costs to engage with your organization. Even though Splunk doesn't respect it, a candidate views their own time as extremely valuable and has chosen to spend it with you. To just cut a candidate off with a cold shoulder and no further communication is not only extremely unprofessional but also disrespectful.

It takes 10 seconds to send an email. I'll give you a free template:

"Dear candidate, we are choosing not to continue with your candidacy at this time."

See how easy that was? Now the candidate can move on with their search.

Did I get the job? Who knows. I'm guessing likely not, since I'll take the cold shoulder as a rejection. However, since I do have choices and options in the Bay Area of where to work, I likely now won't take a position here anyway. Splunk has proven they don't respect people, and that's a culture that isn't for me.

General algorithms and design questions.

Not too hard.