First call was with a recruiter who asked a bit about my motivation. The calls ends with a set multiple coice questions which basically determine if you are qualified to make it to the next round. However, the next round is directly a take home assessment. Without having spoken to any other member of the team of tech staff in general, I was sent a homework that would encompass: - analyzing recipe data using spark - building testing around the routines - building ci/cd using docker - conceptual questions on spark perfomance tuning The task is not overly complex but solving it completely ,I put a good amount of work into it. I had sent it in time (in total 7 days time for the task) but did not receive any feedback after 9 days. I had to actively ask for current status, just to receive 30 mins later a generated rejection mail that my solution had potential but was not good enough. From my perspective this is a sign of missing respect towards applicants. My thoughts: - do not ask candidates that sort of homework in that early stage - be specific in terms of what your expectations are for the solution - provide feedback what the solution is lacking! - be timely and proactive - dont expect candidates to deliver a homework within 7 days and then ghost after/come back after being asked for it I hope this company will overthink its hiring approach and attitude towards applicants who put their free time into this process.