I was contacted by a recruiter and underwent a couple of screenings with them, before the initial interview with the CTO. That conversation seemed to go well so I was schedule for a second round. That went well and I was scheduled for a third round. I was told there might be a fourth round, but they did not know for sure. This should have been a good indication they didn’t have their house in order because they were never clear throughout the recruiting process exactly how many rounds of interviews they needed to conduct before extending an offer. I found out that the role was supposedly between myself and one other candidate, but I was constantly getting good feedback from the different people I was interviewing with, so I felt okay with the ambiguity because it seemed like the opportunity might pan out. I received a call that they decided to not only not extend an offer to me but also to not extend the offer to the other candidate either. To me, it is extremely disrespectful and unprofessional to drag two qualified candidates through so many rounds of interviews with so many people without first confirming internally if this is still the direction they wanted to go in. I understand not every candidate is perfect for every role but dragging people through extrenous and lengthy interview processes with zero intent on actually hiring them is such a waste of time for every person involved.