Ask HN: Does TopTal Work as a Freelancer?

I’m in the process of interviewing with TopTal and have passed the initial test however I’m getting some red flags with their process. The largest being they have a take home assignment which should take between 24 and 48 hours to complete! Oh and they don’t pay you your hourly rate to complete it either.

The only person I’ve been able to talk to was unable to tell me if my expected rate of USD$300/hr is realistic, all they said is you set your own rate.

So Ask HN, do you have experience freelancing with TopTal? What’s your hourly rate?

Edit: I’m Devops/SRE, but interested to hear from everyone