The homework doesn't get you the job though. You may need to go through 10 of those to find someone who wants to hire you and you also wanna work for them. Le

The homework doesn't get you the job though. You may need to go through 10 of those to find someone who wants to hire you and you also wanna work for them. Let's say you're currently employed, where are you gonna find those 10 weeks? Minuscule one-time effort? You never switch jobs? There are lots of professions that make just as much or more as your average software developer. Accountants, sales people, bankers, lawyers, dentists, managers ... the list goes on. Software developers are middle class (or at least what's left of it). Is the homework a strong enough signal? What if someone helped the candidate? What if they won't get along with the team or the culture? How close is it to the real work the candidate would be doing? I wouldn't base a hiring decision on homework. So this is basically just a screen, a very expensive (to the candidate) screen. Who are you screening? Anyone good enough that doesn't need to invest a week to get a job, that's for sure. If you feel homework is a good indicator and you ask someone to do that for you, pay them. $200/hr sounds like a good starting price.