I had two rounds of interviews with them. The first was exploratory, which I cleared. Afterward, they assigned me a task to complete and scheduled a discussion on it with the CPO. The task involved addressing a real-time problem they were facing, which immediately raised a red flag for me. Despite recognizing this, I went ahead and worked on it—that's where I made my mistake. I ended up creating a 17-page Google Doc, thoroughly detailing every aspect of the problem and potential solutions. They emphasized that the task was time-bound, so I dedicated significant effort and energy to complete it within the stipulated period—without any compensation. The discussion went well, but after that, there was no communication. When I reached out to the recruiter, I was told that my profile was "on hold," which didn’t sit well with me. Being put on hold without any explanation felt unprofessional. I followed up by contacting others involved in the interview process, including the management. To this day—over 15 days later—I haven’t received a response. What frustrates me isn’t that I wasn’t selected; it’s the fact that I invested time, effort, and energy into solving a real-time problem for their company without any acknowledgment or feedback. This experience has made me realize that companies asking candidates to solve real-time problems as part of an interview process are exploiting their efforts. There are many other ways to assess someone's skills and capabilities. Asking candidates to complete such tasks without selecting them, or even providing an explanation, is just wrong.