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Take home is great, except people cheat. People even cheat on early screening questions knowing that an interview is coming up. (In a previous role, I gave app

Take home is great, except people cheat. People even cheat on early screening questions knowing that an interview is coming up. (In a previous role, I gave applicants the same -- very trivial -- question that they had already coded the answer for in a do-at-home screening. I wasn't secretive about this, either, I told them that this is the exact same question they had already answered. A significant percentage of them were unable to figure out the same answer they had provided a few days earlier.)

jxramos 9y ago
I like your style on this one, basically pulling out these: "I was on fire the day I solved it in the recent past, I just don't know why I can't pull it together today"
justboxing 9y ago
> except people cheat. I never understood this. In a programming / software development job more than any other job, aren't you very likely to fail at delivering on the job, if you cheat on the interview and tests?
- jldugger 9y ago
  But the money's good while it lasts, right? And you can always 'fake it until you make it' on the job too, right?
- heartbreak 9y ago
  If cheating is defined as looking up the solution on Google, I frequently cheat while performing my job responsibilities.
dajohnson89 9y ago
is take home great? if you have a full time job, any sense of home life, is being asked to code a small project in your spare time (and on a limited time basis) sane? I did two this year, and tbh I think the next company that assigns me one I'll just decline.
- nnd 9y ago
  I think take-home projects are great for evaluating domain experience and general programming aptitude but should be relatively small. Anything that would take more than 1-2 hours is an overkills, although sadly I see a lot of companies expecting you to build a full product (e.g. production ready iOS app with custom design and full test coverage).
  - dajohnson89 9y ago
    The ones I've taken this year were two days of effort and five days of effort. Because I was so busy with other things, both submissions were littered with TODOs and hacks, and both were given no-pass with zero feedback.
    - dajohnson89 9y ago
      N.B. the LOE estimates of 2 & 5 days were theirs, not mine.

jxramos 9y ago

I like your style on this one, basically pulling out these: "I was on fire the day I solved it in the recent past, I just don't know why I can't pull it together today"

justboxing 9y ago

> except people cheat. I never understood this. In a programming / software development job more than any other job, aren't you very likely to fail at delivering on the job, if you cheat on the interview and tests?

jldugger 9y ago
But the money's good while it lasts, right? And you can always 'fake it until you make it' on the job too, right?
heartbreak 9y ago
If cheating is defined as looking up the solution on Google, I frequently cheat while performing my job responsibilities.

dajohnson89 9y ago

is take home great? if you have a full time job, any sense of home life, is being asked to code a small project in your spare time (and on a limited time basis) sane? I did two this year, and tbh I think the next company that assigns me one I'll just decline.

nnd 9y ago
I think take-home projects are great for evaluating domain experience and general programming aptitude but should be relatively small. Anything that would take more than 1-2 hours is an overkills, although sadly I see a lot of companies expecting you to build a full product (e.g. production ready iOS app with custom design and full test coverage).
- dajohnson89 9y ago
  The ones I've taken this year were two days of effort and five days of effort. Because I was so busy with other things, both submissions were littered with TODOs and hacks, and both were given no-pass with zero feedback.
  - dajohnson89 9y ago
    N.B. the LOE estimates of 2 & 5 days were theirs, not mine.