Nearly ten months on a take-home, then two questions
While working as a senior frontend developer, Regal tracked 109 applications, 50 rejections and seven interview requests.
One employer demanded a proctored test before it would even consider the application. Another put Regal through a personality test and a four-hour in-person sequence spanning technical, CTO and product interviews. A meeting with the PM and CEO had to be rescheduled.
At a different employer, after nearly ten months on a take-home assessment and a technical interview, the director asked only two questions across an hour-long interview. Five minutes in, Regal wrote: “Insane. 5 minutes into an hour-long interview and it’s immediately psychological warfare”
That process still had one more timed coding exercise waiting.
The tracker supplies the scale of Regal’s search: 109 applications, 50 rejections and seven interview requests. Those are the figures in the source’s screenshot, not a claim about anyone else’s search.
The proctored test came before the employer would consider the application. It moved assessment ahead of screening and made candidate time a condition of being looked at.
One employer combined a personality test with a four-hour in-person sequence whose PM/CEO meeting was rescheduled.
Another ran a take-home Regal received in June 2025 and turned in, at 37 hours of work, in February 2026, then a technical interview, a director interview and a final timed coding exercise. The accumulation, not any single stage, is what makes this account worth keeping.