Had a recruiter reach out to me based on my experience and informed me that they had an opening she thought aligned really well with my background. I said great, happy to hear more about it! The phone screen went very well with the recruiter and she was the highlight of the interview process. She was very good about staying in touch, very professional, and made the experience very personalized and well-organized. I had a first-round interview with the VP of delivery enablement, to whom this role would report directly, and it went really well. Moved onto a second-round interview with the lead Agile Coach, which also went very well. Finally had a third-round interview with the director of Techincal Program Management and though she asked many difficult questions, some requiring internal company knowledge to answer sufficiently, I was able to showcase my knowledge and problem-solving skills. Next, they gave me this "practice exercise" which was to solve a real-world problem they are running into as an organization. I played along though I should have charged them consulting hours. After spending several hours on this, presenting it to the VP and Agile Coach, and leaving them speechless with my two solutions, I thought I had it in the bag. The recruiter calls me a few days later and informs me that "though the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, they wanted someone who could jump right in and make an impact. You were absolutely the top candidate but they have decided to cancel the position at this time". I got the impression that they dropped this on her out of the blue as well and I could tell she genuinely felt bad about it. So, you give all applicants a "project" to solve your problems for free, then cancel the job opportunity altogether? Hugely insulting and unprofessional and if they were unable to make a decision for a hire, I wonder what it's like actually working there. Again, a major shout out to the recruiter for being the most professional of all and making the otherwise useless experience somewhat pleasant.