I interviewed for the Bain Innovation Exchange (BIE) in San Francisco throughout October/November 2019. Everything was went well enough (apart from being process being slightly slow, which is not uncommon for companies like Bain) up until the final round. Prior to the final round, I had a mixture of in-person and video conference interviews with the leadership team, and all of them were fairly straightforward and relaxed (basic questions about my experience and interests in joining the team). Then, last week, I received an email from the recruiter on late Wednesday afternoon about my 'final round' case assignment, and the recruiter requested I return the assignment 4 days later (by the following Monday). I've done plenty of case assignments in other interview processes, so this is something I'm used to and comfortable doing. But, in all honesty, the case assignment provided by the BIE team was way too demanding for an interview process. Keep in mind, the work required for the case assignment is work that I have done a lot of in the past. However, all in all, it took me about 4 full days (working morning through evening) to complete. Thankfully, I was able to dedicate nearly full time to this assignment, but I can't imagine how candidates with full-time jobs, or children/other responsibilities a home would have been able to complete that assignment. To me, this hiring practice seems flirt pretty closely with being discriminatory, and I would advise Bain and the BIE team to pay close attention to that with future candidates. A better alternative would be to reduce the number of deliverables required for the case assignment, or to have both case scenarios come from the same industry to minimize the research required. So, I got to chugging through this case study assignment on Thursday, but then on Friday, I received a job offer from another company I had been interviewing with. I had been more interested in the job at Bain, so I contacted my Bain recruiter that evening to let her know about the development in my job search process, and to get a sense of what next steps were left with Bain, and roughly how long they would take. She replied to me on Sunday evening and told me that if I could get my case assignment to her by the next dat then the team could give me a decision on an offer by Monday end of day. Based on her response, I postponed my decision deadline with the other company until Wednesday. I sent the recruiter my case early Monday morning. Then, late Monday night, I heard back from the recruiter asking me to come in and present my case the following evening (at 6:30pm), and that the team would have a decision for me the day after that. I emailed her back soon after receiving her email. I expressed concerns that that would be tough on my timeline, and asked if there was any way for the team to come to a decision sooner. I received no response. The next day, I tried to reach her over phone and email, and still received no response. I believe she was unreachable because of jury duty, but I wish she would have looped in another colleague to the conversation so that I wasn't left in the dark. I finally heard from her this morning notifying me that the team decided to not extend an offer in light of me not being able to present my case assignment. My honest assessment? I think the recruiter messed up. I don't think she was aligned with the team about the interview process, and gave me false information when she said that the team could give me a decision on Monday evening. It's unfortunate that I made it so far in the process, dedicated so much time to the process, only to lose an opportunity based on what appears to me misalignment and miscommunication between the recruiting team and the hiring team.