I applied online and, for the first step, a senior Data Scientist took a 30 minute technical call with me. It was straightforward and went well, so they sent me their data challenge. This is where things get ethically questionable. It seems like Via is using their technical screens to source service expansions for free. They had me do a rather involved technical challenge that examined the efficiency of transportation between LaGuardia Airport, Astoria and Manhattan using NYC open data. They asked me if to look at ridership and how I would expand Via's service to these areas. It was unpaid work on their product. I had a week for the challenge and it took me about 30-40 hours, mostly done on Memorial Day weekend. After submitting the challenge, they responded that "they were moving in a different direction" and "I wasn't the right fit". I asked for feedback and they refused to provide me with any feedback at all on my assignment, other than "they were very impressed" by my work. This is extremely rude and unprofessional! I did ~40 hours of work on their product for free and got no feedback whatsoever. I do not recommend interviewing with this company for a Data Science role. They are just using you for unpaid work for route expansions.