For a technical interview, I was given a very comprehensive take-home case study. The instructions didn’t include any time limit (e.g., “finish within 4 hours”). So it was effectively open-ended. Looking back, I see that as a red flag given the scope of the assignment.
I spent several days on it and submitted what I believe was a strong, production-level prompt for a task that closely resembles a real problem the company is working on.
After I submitted, communication stopped. Despite saying they urgently needed to hire, I didn’t receive feedback for sometime. When I asked about next steps, they sent a rejection email with a generic message and no specific feedback. I followed up politely to ask what exactly didn’t meet the bar, but I haven’t received a response.
Based on this experience, I’d recommend being cautious with this company—especially when it comes to open-ended take-home assignments.