> We receive a lot of interest and applications for each position at Kagi which makes selection processes is extremely competitive. This is the real take away.

> We receive a lot of interest and applications for each position at Kagi which makes selection processes is extremely competitive. This is the real take away. Don't put in outsized effort at companies that are highly subscribed. Everyone prides themselves on being "extremely competitive" and unless it's a FAANG (or well known quiet money fountain like Valve), it's probably not actually worth the effort. If it's hot on HN, it's highly subscribed -- you just can't expect effort to be valued the same way when there are 10 applicants. > We normally don’t provide feedback at this stage. We have had other submissions that were simpler and stronger, so we decided to continue forward with these candidates. This would have been a great place to push and ask for a little more feedback (while being nice as possible since they have nearly no incentive to share more)... How could the other solutions have been simpler and "stronger" (whatever that means? more robust?) -- a few details on what you missed that they were looking for (tests? documentation? CI?) could at least add some value. All that said -- finding a job is really hard right now. Wish you the best.