With 15+ years of experience in software engineering, I’ve gone through many interview processes, including senior and lead-level assessments.
However, the coding test here required full-screen sharing of the entire desktop, disabling secondary monitors, and being observed over camera for 3 hours straight.
This level of exam-style proctoring is highly unusual for professional engineering roles and doesn’t reflect real working conditions.
Experienced developers don’t write production code under surveillance with locked-down environments — we use documentation, tools, multiple monitors, debugging environments, and we solve problems collaboratively.
There are far more effective and industry-standard ways to evaluate someone's skills, such as architecture discussions, code review sessions, pair programming, take-home tasks, or live problem-solving.
Strict proctoring may filter out cheating, but it also filters out experienced engineers who expect to be treated as professionals, not students in an exam hall.
Sharing this feedback so others know what to expect and so the company might consider more realistic and mature assessment methods.