I recently went through the interview process for a backend position at Circle Medical. The process began with a call from the recruiter, where we discussed my resume, experience, and what I was looking for in my next role. The recruiter was professional and thorough, and this initial interaction left a positive impression. Next, I had a 30-minute call with the engineering manager of the team I would potentially join. He was friendly and took the time to explain the role and his team’s work, as well as ask me some questions about my background. Following that, there was a 1-hour technical interview with two frontend engineers. They asked a mix of technical questions and behavioural questions. Both interviewers were nice, and the session felt like a genuine discussion rather than a rigid test. The final step was a 2-hour coding interview with a backend engineer. I was asked to develop an API in Python with unit tests. I found the task fairly easy and completed it in about 50 minutes, which I felt was a strong performance. Unfortunately, after this step, my interlocutor at Circle Medical became much less responsive, claiming to be gathering feedback, but the delays felt like stalling. A week later, I received an email saying they would not move forward because I was "hesitating" during the coding interview—feedback I found puzzling, given that I completed the task successfully and on time. They mentioned he would follow up with more detailed feedback but never did. I emailed again a few days later to ask for more clarification and requested a copy of the coding interview recording to learn from it, but I never heard back. After four interviews and over 30 email exchanges, the lack of clear, actionable feedback and the sudden drop in communication felt unprofessional and disheartening. While the early stages of the process were well-conducted, the conclusion left me with the impression that candidates might not always be treated with the respect and transparency they deserve.