I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at The Exploration Company
Interview
Initial interview is an HR screening, where the interviewer reads questions from a list, basically asking about your experience with each of the listed job requirements. Very short, took 10-15 minutes. Afterwards you sign an NDA, after which you get a 1-week take-home exercise. The exercise is quite extensive, and took me close to 30 hours to complete, which felt excessive. After submitting the take-home, we scheduled the technical interview for the next week. The technical interview was chill, but I got the feeling the interviewers hadn't looked at my submission beforehand, because they only had very surface-level, off-the-cuff questions (e.g. questions about specific syntax choices rather than architecture). Got the results (negative) a few days later. The email encouraged asking for feedback, but I never got a response to my request.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How many years of experience of C++14 (specifically) do you have, and how would you rate your skills on a scale of 1 to 10?
I applied online. I interviewed at The Exploration Company (Planegg) in Feb 2026
Interview
The process started with an initial HR screening to assess technical fit and experience alignment. I met approximately 90% of the requirements listed in the job description.
The next step was a technical programming assignment with a level of complexity significantly higher than similar exercises typically requested by comparable companies in the market. The workload was substantial and required roughly a full week of intensive work to complete at a professional standard (clean architecture, best practices, documentation, and code quality).
The final deliverable not only met the stated requirements but also included additional improvements and a well-structured design. However, the process ended without an opportunity for a technical interview to discuss the solution, explain architectural decisions, or receive detailed feedback.
What was most disappointing was not the rejection itself, but the absence of a technical conversation considering the level of effort required. When companies request complex assignments, it would be more professional to include a technical review or discussion session, regardless of the final decision.
In 15 years of participating in technical interview processes, this has been my least satisfactory experience due to the imbalance between the effort requested and the feedback provided.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The most demanding part was a complex take-home technical assignment that required significant time investment and architectural decision-making without a follow-up technical discussion.