A recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn about this opportunity. After an interview with the hiring manager, I was asked to complete a coding assignment (Rewards Redemption app with Rails + React). I spent four days building a production-quality fullstack app with proper DB transactions and locking, full frontend and backend test coverage, polished UI, complete documentation and extra features like JWT auth, filters, toast notifications. While not required, I even deployed it to AWS (React app on S3, Rails API on EC2, and CloudFront configured to route API requests to EC2 and other traffic to S3) to make testing seamless. I went above and beyond what was asked because I was genuinely interested in the role. After submitting, the company ghosted me completely. When I followed up with the recruiter, I was told they've decided to postpone hiring until Q2 and will "consider my candidacy then." This is inexcusable. Candidates deserve transparency about hiring timelines before being asked to invest days of work. The scope was already extensive, and having candidates invest time when the role isn't even active shows a complete lack of respect for their time and effort.

I had one introductory interview with the Technology Director, and shortly after, I was asked to complete a take-home assessment that included both backend and frontend work. The assignment was estimated at 5 to 10 hours. The initial conversation was straightforward, but the process quickly became unbalanced. After investing significant time in a multi-part take-home project, I received no feedback. Not even a short message to confirm review, share a decision, or provide basic notes. Asking candidates for many hours of unpaid work and then not responding is disrespectful to their time and effort. It also raises concerns about how the company values communication and candidate experience. They didn't even inform me that they wouldn't proceed with the process; I only learned this after a week when I asked the recruiter. Suggestion for Improvement: If you require a take-home assignment of this scope, provide a clear timeline for review and commit to giving at least brief feedback. Better yet, reduce the scope or replace it with a shorter, time-boxed exercise and a follow-up discussion.