Initial phone screen, hiring manager interviews, and panel interviews went well. Had about 4 rounds then was given a take home assignment. Since it was clear they were very warm in terms of my candidacy, I felt if I knocked this take home assignment out of the park, I would be able to seal the deal. The take home assignment was simple in nature, but I wasn't given much direction. So I spent a lot of time figuring out the best way to tackle it since I had millions of ways to go about it. I stuck with an approach and spent about 7 hours on the project to make sure the I's were dotted and the T's were crossed. Between the brainstorming and the actual work, I spent way too much time on it, but I felt it was worth it. I submit the project and it gets good reviews, but then I am told to do a last minute "cherry on top" call with just one more person, on short notice - I was told about it about an hour before and I said I could make it work. It was supposed to be with one person, but then 2 more join the call so I now have a call with 3 people. The entire 30 minutes I was put on defense because they thought my take home assignment was "too good" and they trashed me because they thought I was over qualified, would get bored quickly and therefore would be a flight risk and would jump at another opportunity too quickly. So I had to defend myself the whole 30 minutes. After that I was completely ghosted by the hiring manager, recruiters and everyone else I had been in contact with and then sent a generic noreply rejection email a week later. I didn't care though because after going through that 30 minute air raid I would not want to work for such inconsiderate people, so I was going to reject them if they continued to move me forward. They are welcome for the free labor I sent them. Wouldn't surprise me if they just used a chump like me to get free work done for them.