Quick fast forward: Don't waste your time! Or go for it if you want to be treated as a resource and not an asset! I was contacted by the recruiter via LinkedIn. The role was for Toptal's internal team, not a freelancer role. Next, I interviewed with the Head of Product Design then was offered to complete an assignment. The task was to redesign the resume page of Toptal freelancers and I submitted a presentation deck. A few hours after submitting the deck I received a call from the recruiter and the feedback was stellar, the Head of Product reviewed the presentation, and from the recruiter's own words "out of the park", "this is so impressive", "you crushed it". Also, the Head of Product Design felt that the presented work aligns well with the Toptal brand. The last interview was scheduled with a Senior Product Manager and the Director of Product, our schedules didn't align and I met with the PM on Friday first. The interview went well, he was impressed by my presentation and mentioned that several findings from my anecdotal research were identical to their research results from the last quarter. The last interview was scheduled at 10:30 am on Monday, at 6:30 am when I woke up I saw that the ZOOM call was canceled 2 hours prior and no explanation was provided. I called the recruiter and all she said is that "they have to cancel" and she received a "cryptic" response to why the interview process was suddenly interrupted. It was nice of her to offer to try and find out what happened but didn't hear back from her. I followed up with an email, she didn't respond. Because the interview process was going so well I wanted to understand what happened so I wrote an email to the recruiter, Head of Product, PM, and Director of Product. In 30 min the recruiter emailed back saying that they went with another candidate. Such a quick change in tune! From a cryptic response to having hired someone else is a very long way and why didn't they tell me so at the moment the last interview was canceled? Completely unprofessional, no respect towards candidates, and a total lack of transparency! If you are looking for career growth, to make an impact and be a valuable team member don't waste your time with Toptal. Especially if where you are based the product development process is well ingrained in the tech industry, you are better of finding something locally.