BNSF Railway Software Engineer interview experience

The take-home style assessment I received didn’t feel like it measured practical Java or SQL work; it leaned more toward recalling less-used framework details from memory, like regurgitating specifics you’d normally look up in reference docs. The setup was stressful because it treated documentation knowledge as the main signal, not the kind of development work you do day to day.

On top of that, the rules were restrictive. External references weren’t allowed, and there was no proper IDE support—just a run button and a basic editor experience. In the worst moment for me, the tests seemed set