Not sure how common is this kind of interview experience
Okay, so I received a call from Delivery Hero for a data engineering profile. I had the initial screening and cleared the online test. After that, the hiring manager shared a take-home case with me and asked me to solve it as soon as feasible.
It took me regarding 2 and half days to work on it before I shared the result. The case was an interesting one. It had a number of SQL problems but the catch was they were all interdependent so I was supposed to create a data pipeline for the same. Another thing that was mentioned was that it had to be solved on the GCP Bigquery Platform and the whole pipeline was to be developed using Python.
I developed my Python Code which essentially ensured that any pipeline could be created using just a few configurations and the same could be triggered and scheduled on the Bigquery platform. In brief - a small but working ETL tool for Bigquery using Python. I shared the GitHub link and also detailed instructions and documentation on how to run the tool.
After that I got a different round scheduled. The same hiring manager was quite interested and asked me to demo the tool. I did the same on my local machine and explained separate functionalities, features, and limitations. We discussed feasible scenarios and how my tool could handle it. The discussion was a good hour lengthy. The manager parted saying that he will schedule 2 more rounds in the following few days.
Now, it's been 10 days and I now feel I got ghosted after I shared the solution and how to gig with it over a call. Is this typical? I have heard regarding incidents where candidates solve the take-home cases and then get ghosted. I emailed but received no response. Another weird thing I noticed is that the recruiter who was my point of contact is now unreachable and has her phone switched off.
I feel weak because the case solution worked perfectly and cannot get the thought out of my mind that it might have been a scam. I would have been okay with a rejection mail but ghosting hurts.
Thoughts?
TC: 43 LPA
YOE: 6.5
EDIT [2026-08-23]:
Some more observations:
- The HR coordinator doesn't belong to DH. She is a headhunter
- The folks mentioned as part of Foodpanda (DH) cannot be found on Google
- The meeting happened on Meta Meet. I am not certain if DH uses enterprise Meta Tools. If not, then likely more reason for believing it is a scam.