After one initial task and an initial interview, I was told I reached the final stage of the interview process and I was given the choice between a take home task and a live coding interview, of which I choose the take home. I spent a full 40 unpaid hours on the take home task over the course of a week and really poured my soul into it, thinking that since this was the last thing, if I could just do a great job on it, I would get the offer. They said they liked it (looking back, don't think they even looked) and reach out about a final-final 30 minute interview just to go over the task with them. However, I show up, only to blindsided by them saying that they changed their mind and are doing a live coding interview anyways! With absolutely no warning or preparation, and it felt like they didn't even look at my take home even though I spent so long on it. Not only that but that it went way over the allotted 30 minutes and no one checked whether this was ok with me (I ended up super late for a meeting I had right afterwards). The interviewers did however check in with eachother about the time and asked eachother if it was ok, in a way that felt uncomfortable and disrespectful as a woman interviewing with 3 men. I have never felt more disrespected in an interview before and it is clear to me that this company does not value their candidates time, even in the final round when I had already invested so much labor into this company. I feel like they essentially told me to do this task, I spent a full week on it unpaid, and then they just threw it in the trash.
I have had plenty of bad interviews but never one as disrespectful to my time as this company. I would not recommend associating with them in any way.