First, technical interview with two really knowledgeable leads, very interesting, liked the experience. Unfortunately next was a task. They ask not to disclose the contents of the task, but I can say that it's some legacy code that requires you to develop on a windows pc (which is not itself an issue if you have one, but if you're a Mac user... well, looks like you'll have a lot of fun). Besides that, the task has some code pre-written and the quality is exceptionally bad. The task itself is pretty unclear. I assumed it was to merely optimise the code, without changing the logic of the implementation, let alone finding bugs in it. Turns out that's what was expected after all. This second part of the interview process was really messed up and definitely not pleasant.

Shortly after applying I was invited for a first interview with one of the teams at Crytek. Unbeknownst to me, this was already a technical interview, with a barrage of programming questions - there was no talk about salary expectations or employment conditions. All people were nice and friendly, though. After this, I was assigned a programming test to be completed within a 3-days time frame. Now, this assignment was BIG, and I cannot imagine anybody completing it within the time limit without putting full-time effort into it. I found this to be a bit of a red flag and highly unusual, even for FAANG-level companies. Some time after completing and delivering the test, I received a rejection email saying that, although my coding skills are very strong, they decided to proceed with another candidate that better aligns with the position's requirements. I found this rather unfair and disrespectful, as it was an open admission that the team's decision was made regardless of the test's outcome, and without much consideration on whether they would be wasting my time or not.