A phone screen, followed by a technical interview, followed by a programming task. The first two interviews are pretty fluffy. Lots of softball questions.
The phone screen and technical interview were fine. I found the technical interviewer a little distracted and disconnected, but that's fine.
After that, he sent me a programming task, which they said would take 8-10 hours to complete. There were some guidelines around some of the expectations that the programming task should accomplish (google ceros ski test to get an idea of what they're looking for). Basically, you're supposed to refactor a game, fix some bugs, and add a feature. Exactly what you do is left up to the developer, which was nice.
But they ask you to rebuild the application so that it's ready for production; which can mean any number of things to many people. Telling someone that it should take 8-10 hours is essentially giving them a budget of 8-10 hours. Of course in an interview situation, you tend to spend a little more time on things, and this programming test ate up my entire weekend.
So I do the task and submit my answers.
A week goes by and nothing. I email asking what's up with my application and get a reply of "Oh, they didn't like your solution"
So, after spending 8-10 hours (read: an entire weekend), they don't have the courtesy to return an email. No feedback. Just silence.
This is why the hiring process for developers needs to be shaken up. Programming tasks like this are garbage. You want me to spend a weekend applying for your job? Pay me.
It's been a few months since I applied, and after being rejected for a job, but ever now and then I think about programming tasks and my experience with Ceros and I'm grateful I didn't get the job. If they treat people this way during the interview process, imagine how they treat people who work for them. And for a taste of that, look at their reviews here. The real ones, not the obviously fake reviews.