Toptal Software Developer interview questions

TL;DR: The interview at toptal is not an interview, it is paying your dues. The process starts with a call to know you, then some online coding exercises, then another call with technical questions, and then a test project. The coding exercises were pretty basic things coding wise but will make you think a lot about logic and math. Things I didnt use since university such as manipulating powers of 2 or chess moves. Ok pretty strange but continuing. Then the technical interview there was a lot about REST api and the different HTTP verbs. But the issue here is the test project. Be prepared to put at least 20 hours on a test project. But dont treat it like an exercise, treat it like a "real project". My test project was rejected because: - I used sessions in the API instead of a token - I didnt validate for negative numbers - I used the django admin for the admin, I had to create my own admin page - The UI was not nice (even though they said I wouldnt be marked on design) All these things I could have corrected in a couple days but they decided to reject it completely and give me the chance to try again with another project in a month. I said it was a project exercise and they said "it is a real project". I never had a real project where I didnt get the chance to correct when there was a difference of expectations. And I never had a real project that wasnt paid! I put on a lot of time making tests for testing the API (which was a specified requirement) and the guy didnt care to look. He was more interested in seeing if I had validated against negative number values in the input, which totally exceeds the requirements of a test project in my point of view. There was no discussion possible about making those changes. I said "I can make those changes in a couple days" and they said "you cannot correct, you have to try another project completely new if you want. This is our rules" It is always "this is our rules" type of answer. When I asked them "why dont you pay for this test project to see what I can do? otherwise I m putting some hours here and there when I have free time" . They answered "why should we pay you if you want to enter our network?" The reality is that this wasnt about my coding skills or ability to handle a project or clients, this is a way to make developers pay their dues to enter the super elite of top talent developers.