I recently went through the interview process with Cyderes for a senior DevOps/SRE role. While the first round was straightforward and focused on screening basic technical knowledge, the second round left me quite disappointed. For the second round, I was asked to complete a technical assignment involving infrastructure design and CI/CD setup using tools and environments of my choice. I dedicated nearly a full week to this task, using my personal environment and experience to deliver a well-thought-out solution. However, after submitting the assignment, I received no feedback until I proactively reached out to HR. I was then informed that my submission was being rejected because they believed I had used AI to complete the assignment. I want to make it explicitly clear that I did not use AI in any way. Furthermore, the company does not use any platform to verify the authenticity of the work (such as HackerRank or Coderbyte), nor was there any live session or follow-up round to ask clarifying questions or allow me to explain my approach. It appears that they made this judgment purely on assumption, without any proof or a fair chance to clarify. It's totally discouraging to be dismissed this way after investing so much time and effort so think twice before taking up any assignment. If the hiring process allows for offline assignments, it is only fair to have a transparent review process rather than baseless assumptions. This kind of approach undermines the efforts of candidates who take the process seriously and honestly.