Long hiring process with an at-home 6-hour technical challenge. The challenge itself was ok — I implemented two microservices with asynchronous communication via RabbitMQ (as suggested in the requirements), including an outbox pattern for event reliability, hexagonal architecture, and all bonus tasks. The technical interview went smoothly with all questions answered. After being told I ‘didn’t fit the team’ with no technical justification, I asked for concrete feedback. The response was to strengthen async communication — which is almost ironic given I implemented two event-driven microservices with a typed event queue — and to reinforce GCP, which is not mentioned anywhere in the requirements. Also I am strong with AWS and cloud experience transfers across providers; that’s not a valid technical gap. The process feels misleading for candidates. If the team has specific stack requirements, those should be communicated upfront rather than discovered after investing significant personal time. Salary offer is also below market for a senior position.