Interviewing was intense. They were with multiple people and they drilled down into experiences. Also found that each interviewer had a different personal take on the position like there wasn’t a consensus about it. Eventually, I find out they hired internally, and I was just to make it appear competitive.

5 Interviews with hiring manager, director, other team members. The recruiter was very informative and responsive until the very end. I ended up having to do a project as a final step that had terrible instructions, and incorrect terms. I was told to ask if I had any questions, but it was given friday afternoon and everyone was off for the weekend. I received no feedback about the project or questions about why I structured it that way. Considering I have a portfolio (and it's usually required for this field), I should've never been asked to do a FREE project. It should be illegal or the company should compensate. I was ghosted for over a week, then finally a response that they decided to go with another candidate with no explanation why. Very inconsiderate and frustrating since I was being hyped up by these people the whole time.