I applied through the Yandex website and submitted solutions for a few tasks, which took an overall of three full days to complete. The questions were fairly difficult and required good problem-solving skills, knowledge about complexity, data structures, and algorithms, as well as strong C++ skills.

After that, a recruiter contacted me and set up a Skype interview with two developers. I thought at this point they would just verify my level of knowledge regarding the skills I had proven by solving the tasks. Instead, they asked me questions that were more difficult than those posted on the website – really kind of tricky.

Why don't they interview people for half an hour, like all decent companies do as a first step, instead of making you develop for days and then rejecting you because you cannot answer a couple of tricky questions?

At Yandex, they probably think that half an hour of theirs is worth three days of yours. I think they should select people first and ensure they fit their needs, and then ask them to develop for hours.

Finally, the funny thing is the email they send you telling you that you are not going to get offered a job, in which they suggest they might contact you for future opportunities. All to avoid these kinds of reviews, which I think everyone should write.

Some coding involving constructors in C++ containing within themselves dynamically allocated objects and how to handle exceptions that might be raised.