The recruitment process was very cold and impersonal. A challenge was thrown at me via email without any prior calls or discussion with a recruiter. The emails gave a very "disinterested" vibe. I spent 3 days on the challenge, poured my soul, time, and sleep into it only to receive a generic email from a no-reply address saying they will not be moving forward. The email they sent was the same rejection email they would send if you were rejected after application, not fitting for someone who had gone through the pain of doing a machine learning challenge, no acknowledgments for my efforts or anything. I was confused about what position the email was even for because it was so generic. Emailed the recruiter to verify and she sent a one-liner saying it's for XXX position. No feedback, nothing. I felt so embarrassed. Even if you felt my work was bad, was it so bad that I did not deserve a decent rejection? It was a total waste of my time given that I had other interviews to prepare for which was the more painful part. I had read poor reviews on this company's recruitment process but I thought they would have taken all the feedback and improved on their process. They tell you the challenge should last for 5-6 hours but we all know that no machine learning challenge takes that amount of time especially if you are trying to give it your best shot. The whole thing made me feel so bad, a huge blow to my confidence. This would be the last time I ever interview with this company. Imagine working with people who so easily discard the hard work of others. Even bigger companies with more applicants have never treated me this way.

After an initial phone screen there was a take home challenge that they claim to take 6 hours. It took me about 12 hours. After the takehome was the onsite loop, which was 4 interviews with various cases and a chance to meet the hiring manager. Everyone seemed disinterested and like they were reading a script. There were too many required questions and not enough time to have an honest conversation about the role. When I finally sat down with the hiring manager to hopefully learn more about the role, it ended up being another case study- and again no extra time for my questions. Overall, the impersonal nature of the entire process left me with a pretty poor impression of the company. DoorDash- interviewers should be trying to excite and enable candidates, not just grill them on formulaic case studies.