I recently went through the interview process for an Engineering position at Engine by Starling. While the team was professional and the process was well-structured, I found the technical feedback I received to be inconsistent with modern Android best practices, particularly Jetpack Compose state management. The take-home task expectations were excessive. A reasonable test should take no more than 2-4 hours, yet the level of work expected here would require nearly a week of effort. This disproportionately disadvantages working parents and candidates with other responsibilities, making the hiring process unfair. If a company expects candidates to spend a week on a test, it should be paid. No one should be expected to contribute free labor to help a company evaluate talent, especially when companies directly benefit from it. During the feedback, I was told that “ViewModels holding state in Compose states isn’t considered a good practice anymore.” However, this contradicts Google’s official guidance, which explicitly recommends using Compose state for UI-related data when working within a Compose-based UI. When I asked for clarification or references to support their claim, I did not receive a response. Additionally, the feedback did not acknowledge the context of a test task versus a production-ready application. I had implemented example tests for each architectural component (Compose views, ViewModels, use cases, repositories) and clearly documented the scope, yet the lack of full UI and ViewModel tests was cited as a reason for rejection. While testing is critical, it’s common in take-home challenges to focus on architecture and core functionality rather than exhaustive test coverage. My primary concern was ensuring clean architecture and proper separation of layers, which I implemented following modern Android guidelines. I would have welcomed the opportunity to discuss some of my decisions, as I believe a constructive exchange would have been beneficial for both sides.