I had a disappointing experience with the interview process at Guidde. After an initial conversation with HR (covering my experience, salary expectations, and next steps), I had a 45-minute "introductory" interview with the QA Team Lead. At the end of the call, I was given an assignment that was supposed to take a few hours but ended up taking over a day due to its complexity. The task required me to analyze a competitor's website, write detailed requirements, and then create test cases based on them. However, as a QA engineer, my role is not to write requirements at all—the company should have provided clear requirements, on which test case creation would be based. Despite this, I approached the task thoroughly and ended up writing over 180 test cases following the requirements' flow. After submitting the assignment, I was invited to a technical interview (1.5 hours) with the QA Team Lead, followed by a VP R&D interview (1 hour), both of which I passed. Then, I had a final formal interview with the company’s founder, who appeared disinterested, even yawning several times. Despite a positive reference check (which I was informed about), I was ultimately rejected—citing that my test cases were "scattered and unorganized." This raises two major concerns: If my test cases were truly an issue, why proceed with multiple additional interviews? Why conduct reference checks, which typically confirm a candidate's suitability? The entire process felt inconsistent and frustrating. Moreover, the company’s assignment expectations were unrealistic and misaligned with the actual responsibilities of a QA role. If there were another candidate, I assume they would have simply said they chose someone else—which would have been understandable. Instead, the handling of my rejection felt disorganized and unprofessional. Very disappointed with this experience.