I had a 30-minute call with a recruiter from the company. Everything was pleasant, and she asked about my background, what I wanted out of the company, and goals for compensation, etc. It was a typical scoping call to see if a candidate was a good fit. I was given a technical take-home quiz where I had to submit a program to handle a specific operations task. After I submitted the homework, I emailed the recruiter and received acknowledgment that everything was in order.

I had sent in my homework during the end of the day Wednesday. After not hearing back for the rest of the week, I emailed the recruiter to check on the status of my application and to inform her that I understood if the answer was a no, but I would love some feedback on my homework and what I could improve on. The recruiter called me immediately and informed me that a few engineers were out of the office and that they would review my homework within the day or two latest. A week later, after no response, I emailed again. This time, there was no response or phone call. A few days later, I was given a standard letter saying they were not moving forward in the interview process and to email if I wanted any particular feedback. I emailed the recruiter again; still no response.

I am not really disappointed in my failure to get the job. However, the lack of communication and having to chase down answers has made this interview process extremely unpleasant.

They had a take-home exam to parse some files for XYZ, using whatever language you wanted.