By assigning homework, companies are also missing out on an opportunity to get to know how the candidate thinks and works on a problem. It's as if you're sched

By assigning homework, companies are also missing out on an opportunity to get to know how the candidate thinks and works on a problem. It's as if you're scheduling a full-day interview but only being present for half of it. And the thing is, especially if the opening is for a less senior position, observing the person while they are completing the assignment can help you get a much better measure of the person's skills, and can also prevent them having to toil for hours with no feedback about whether they're on the right track. If you're observing, the candidate might come up with a suboptimal solution, but with a few gentle nudges, they might correct course and prove themselves to be a very capable person. And you would have totally missed that if it were homework.