References were checked BEFORE the final panel interview. How is this professional? My references were basically burned since they put in hard work writing me glowing reviews and I wasn't even in the final stage. Initial call with recruiter who also gave me a SQL question. Second call with HM. Third call with another Data Scientist for a live Python & SQL challenge (very easy). Fourth step was a take-home that was time-limited to 2 hours, quite difficult. Fifth step was to make a presentation based on the take-home and do an 1-hour panel interview with the HM and 2 other people, but one of them was a no-show. Sixth step was to do a 30 min-interview with the person who was a no-show. Apparently they didn't like my presentation so I was scheduled for a SEVENTH step which was another panel interview with 4 people. After an exhausting 7-step interview, I was told that they're not hiring for this position anymore. And yes, they did the reference check after the fourth step. What a lovely process.