Sonos Software Engineer interview questions

Contacted by recruiter who works for the company (no outside agency). Had about a 30min discussion about open positions/projects within the company and end goals for said projects. Recruiter then sets up an hour long video chat with a Software Development Manager. Next, I am asked to complete a code challenge. The coding exercise is extremely open ended with no time limits and very vague instructions. It takes a couple of hours to complete. The team that grade the exercises seem to grade things that aren't related to the task. For example, the type of framework you use i.e., Spring, which should be irrelevant and not count towards the score. Even if you come up with a fully-functional and tested REST API for this task, the team will deduct points for things like the number of classes used, which is NEVER stated anywhere within the challenge guidelines. The entire exercise is poorly written and grading of this exercise is even worse. It appears as if they have a QA dept with very little development experience grade the code submissions. The feedback given reflects this. I wouldn't bother interviewing with this company.

I have filled out a few online applications for different positions (all similar/related roles). For some of those, I received what seems like an automated response with one vague line that explains they're looking for someone that's a better fit for this position. For one other I received a call from a recruiter. We spoke about my technical background and I was impressed she seemed to understand most of the tech talk (often recruiters aren't interested in that and only look for buzzwords). Then she abruptly explained they are looking for someone with more experience in the music industry. It was so awkward and confusing that I couldn't really tell if she was changing the subject or if that was supposed to be the end of the call. She proceeded to tell me she thinks there are some other positions coming soon that would be a better fit. Great, keep me posted. For another one, I had another good conversation with a different recruiter about my background. She seemed to think I was a good fit, but it turned out they aren't recruiting for that role at my location and I'm not willing to relocate. But she was very positive and has actually reached out a couple times after that to let me know another position that might be a good fit for me. One of those, that she thought would be a good fit for me (and which I agreed) was one that I received a canned rejection email. She actually called me the same day I received that, so I asked her specifically about it. But due to their weird organization, she had no direct knowledge, but offered an idea that they were already making an offer on the position -- 8 days after it had been posted. Overall, something just seems "off" with their recruiting process. I'm genuinely curious what goes on behind the scenes. Are they actually filling all these positions they post (with external candidates) or are they still suffering from the mess earlier this year? I'm not actually interested in working there anymore after getting such a runaround; otherwise, I wouldn't be writing this. I'm just hoping nobody else has to go through this mess of a recruiting process. I should also note that I have a few current employee references who have said I'd be a great fit with the company. The process just left me so confused about what they're looking for.