It is ubiquitous, but we normally do a slightly different thing: * The thing you do is a very narrow fix / feature * ...on our open-source library, so you get

It is ubiquitous, but we normally do a slightly different thing: * The thing you do is a very narrow fix / feature * ...on our open-source library, so you get the credit and visibility * ...with a very defined scope * ...which will usually force you to Google/SO search quite a bit. Since we are not remote, for way-overseas candidates it's pretty much the only thing we could do. We use it to assess fizzbuzz as well as style and the ability to contribute to an existing project, as well as communication and accepting/giving critique. It's not very easy to establish - the company needs to have open-source presence in the first place. It's certainly harder than just having someone do a throwaway full-stack app. But for us it did work very well. The best filter was not even people doing something "not well enough" but people just agreeing to take the assignment and then disappearing.