Assignment submitted. Position frozen.

A candidate was contacted by a startup recruiter and assigned a take-home project as the first step. After completing it and passing the screening round, they were scheduled for a technical interview. Then the postponement emails began -- the founder needed to sit in, the schedule needed reworking. When the candidate followed up, HR informed them the position had been frozen. No apology, no explanation of why the assignment was still assigned after the freeze was in motion. The Reddit post, which went viral, was titled with a single line that resonated across subreddits: "Startups lack basic ethics."