I applied online. Solved the task, pressed the button. Two-three days later HR contacted me, telling they were interested, and scheduled a telephone interview. It went nice, I've been interviewed by one of project leaders. Couple simple coin-tossing questions, nice and friendly.
At that point I mentioned to HR that I actually had an active offer for a job in another city, but Yandex was still a good option, so I asked to make the process as swift as possible.
Next day HR contacted me again, saying that last interview went well, and scheduled a full-day interview on site. Pretty standard practice, four, as they call them, "stations" to check what you can do. Algorithms, statistics, analytics and "internet", where I was offered to design a search engine and we just had a nice chat about what's important and which methods I would use to solve different problems.
Couple days later HR contacted me to say that everything was fine and they wanted to give me a homework, 3 problems to actually solve at home in about a week. Solved that in about 10 days, HR stayed in touch, reminding me that they're ready and willing to help if needed.
HR contacted me about a week later, saying that they've checked the homework and were ready for the final interview, just needed to gather teamleads and that would take a couple of days.
And after that -- silence. It's been what, a month now? Not a word. Obviously, I accepted that other offer, but yandex's behaviour still puzzles me. Nothing, no "sorry, but we're not ready to make an offer" letter, not a call, not a word, it's like someone in HR responsible for me got fired or something, and took my file to his(her) grave.
Edit: A day after I posted this, HR contacted me, apologized and explained there was a bad case of "unfortunate circumstances" with people going on vacation and such, and that they're ready to deliver on that final interview thing. So at least this seems to be sorted out.
Edit2: So, when after the last edit HR guy called me (and that was July 21st), he said, and I quote: "Let's get in touch in the begining of August". Since it's August 15th at the moment of this edit, it's quite safe to say that either my assumption of "August 2016" was a bit too wild, or there's some actual curse in motion. I mean, I'm not even mad at this point, Yandex's mysterious ways are just hilarious and make a great story to tell at a party.
In all seriousness though, not cool, guys. Not cool.