An internal recruiter reached out to me from Zopa and put me forward for a role as a Front End React Developer. After speaking with them on the phone for the initial screening, they sent me a technical challenge to do. Although I think a technical challenge is a great way to test a persons ability, I think the Zopa challenge was, in short, terrible and confused. The challenge was presented as a readme file with instructions and a print screen (literally a print screen) of a design. Nothing more. The challenge was set to be completed within a 4 hour time period and had a list of suggested library to use (Including React and Redux). I think expecting someone to interpret a print screen while also capturing vague functionality from a readme file is too much to ask for if they are going to set a 4 hour time frame on it. To create a responsive page that matches a print screen alone could take 4 hours. It would have been far better to either set no time frame and say to complete it over a few days, or set a 4 hour time frame and provide a skeleton project to start with (which is what I have experienced from other companies - setting up dependencies from scratch alone takes 30-60 minutes). Coupled with that, I was then told in feedback that I was penalised for using Redux as it was not needed. Although I completely agree with that for an application of this size, the fact that the instructions said to use Redux, and the job was listed as having Redux in its stack makes this comment seem a bit confused. Overall, it seems like the company recruitment is confused. I think either the challenge has not been considered properly or updated for the role I went for. Or they were looking for someone with much more experience than I have (which again seems like there is confusion somewhere because they reached out to me with clear visibility of my experience).

1. Phone interview to get familiar with each other and explain the process. 2. Technical test to develop a small application and fulfil requirements. 3. Technical interview which went well and I was confident of moving forward in the process. I was rejected because I did not have any Agile experience and did not fit the culture of the company. After I asked if the interviewer left any details on culture fit, he said I did not know how the company made a profit. If Agile experience was a core requirement for the role, this should have been checked in the first phone interview before moving me forward in the process instead of wasting my time and rejecting me later.