I applied through the company’s website and was immediately drawn to its startup spirit and the fact that it doesn’t have “AI” in its name like so many others these days. I had a great introductory call with the CTO, after which I was given a take-home coding assignment. I genuinely spent around six hours on the task because I found the company’s mission and product interesting and wanted to put forward my best work. About two weeks later, I was invited to the next interview round, which consisted of discussing my solution and completing a short live coding exercise. During the meeting, I presented my implementation and was asked to make a few modifications. The use of AI tools was explicitly allowed. The live coding portion lasted only 10-15 minutes, followed by a couple of questions about my code and several broader questions about the role. I also had more than 20 minutes to ask my own questions, and I left the interview feeling that it had gone well. In the end, however, the company decided not to move forward with my application without providing any feedback or explanation. Considering that I invested nearly eight hours of my time throughout the process, I found the lack of feedback disappointing and, frankly, discourteous. Even a brief explanation would have been appreciated and would have made the experience feel much more respectful of the candidate’s effort.