Job applicant says startup founder made him work 6 hours for free, then ghosted him; Internet reacts

A job applicant has shared that the chief executive officer (CEO) of a Hong Kong-based startup tricked him into doing nearly six hours of unpaid work under the guise of a pre-selection assignment. On top of that, the startup boss never got back to the candidate after they submitted the task.
The applicant, a software engineer, shared their experience on the online discussions forum Reddit, putting the post under a subreddit called r/recruitinghell -- where jobseekers often talk about unprofessional practices in recruitment.

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The candidate had applied for a software engineering role which led to a series of interviews taken by the founder. For the first interview, the founder showed up 10 minutes late and conducted it from a noisy restaurant. "I had to repeat myself constantly," the Reddit user wrote.

In the second session, the founder brought in several files for the candidate to edit, but the latter didn't have the software needed to work on them. "We spent about an hour setting up a trial version, only to realize he didn't have the right files. I ended up just explaining how I would do it, and showed him past complex projects I'd done. Still, he insisted on another session."

For the third and final session, which took place "past dinner time," the founder finally shared the correct files. "Just as I was nearly done, the software crashed. I explained the rest, thinking that would be enough. But no—he asked me to do it again. And again, his software kept crashing. Two attempts later, I finally finished. He eagerly downloaded the files, which felt off—most companies use dummy files for this kind of thing, and wouldn't care about the content."

The candidate further said this lengthy and exhausting process was followed by "total silence" from the recruiter. "No rejection. Just ghosted. I messaged him twice—no response at all. I realized I’d been used for 6 hours of free labour—he got real work done through his 'interview process'."

Reactions
The post triggered outrage among fellow users as many supported the applicant. "Write about them in Glass door," one user suggested, referring to the workplace review platform.
"Sorry for your experience, with how shitty he seems I doubt the company will last long if that helps you feel better loll," another said.