The process started with a small phone conversation to gauge interest and high-level of skills. From there, a coding test was delivered, with a few different, interesting problems to try to solve. Once that was done, there were two phone screenings, both standard 1-hour technical screens. The first had some basic technical questions, along with a verbal description of a problem and solution. The second involved some linear algebra (so please study up on it, it is actually relevant to the job) as well as another coding problem, this one more in depth. The next step would have been an on-site interview but the process ended here for me.

Bungie may be a great company to work for, but their interviewing process pre-onsite visit plain sucks. I spoke with two technical people on the team on the phone, with a week between the two conversations, both of which went pretty well. After the first chat, their recruiter went ahead and forwarded their programming test to me. She did this on a Friday night, and they generally want it completed within a week. Following that, I had a pretty busy week with family matters and work and ended up submitting the solutions before the Monday after next. Effectively still managing to complete both coding exercises within a business week. I had great confidence in these solutions as the problems weren't enormously challenging and I enclosed unit tests that proved correctness beyond a reasonable doubt. The only flaw with the code was it wasn't written in the language specified (C++/C#), but rather in Java which is where I earn my living, so far. But I was fully assured by both engineers on the phone they are totally open to someone like me who would be looking to transition to a new dev platform, and in fact have seen a number of cases where that has taken place. Here's the kicker though - some time into the week I was given to work on the test, the recruiter contacts me and tells me she wants me to talk to the second interviewer. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but agreed. As it turns out, I should have done one of the two things - either declined the conversation or not worked on the test at all. Because following my test submission, I get this exact reply from said recruiter: "Thank you for taking the time to chat with the team and for complete our test. We understand that significant effort, investment and stress goes into taking any test and we absolutely appreciate that effort and engagement. Unfortunately, we have decided to pursue candidates whose skills and experience more closely match the particular needs of this position. If I should receive any additional feedback from the team I’ll certainly pass it along" If the second paragraph is true, why did you have me work on the test in the first place? Couldn't this decision have been reached without ever seeing a single line of code from me? If you did appreciate the effort that goes into polishing these assignments, the least you could do is give me a better explanation for the decline, not a form email. I thought Bungie was different from scores of companies that have you waste your time on these programming assignments which is a formality to them, when in reality they never intend to bring you in anyway. My advice to anyone applying to engineering positions here (if you must) - decline completing the test until after it becomes a clear pre-condition to progressing further, e.g. being invited on site.