Code review assignments are so much better than coding assignments that for me it's a great sign that your hiring sucks if you haven't switched to them. If you

Code review assignments are so much better than coding assignments that for me it's a great sign that your hiring sucks if you haven't switched to them. If you do a large coding assignment you have to leave the time frame rather open ended to assist candidates that have limited free time. Instead this forces every candidate to spend as much time as possible to get noticed, having an opposite effect. There is no obvious solution to that apart from doing short timed assignments. But what is even more important, a code review can be tailored to provide the same information on technical expertise, has a more natural effort limit and more importantly, it actually tells you about how that person will act as a coworker. Will they even explain their work? Will they provide reasonable feedback, and will their way of explaining their thoughts in written word be detailed enough to guide people through? Not only are code reviews, for myself, essentially part of the documentation of the code base itself, but they are also a very important communication channel. And how one communicates with others through it is a great proxy about how they will handle the rest of their communication. I've never worked with an engineer that was considerate, kind and detailed (with a focus on being understood) in their review comments or presentation, who turned out to be an asshole when interacting with through other channels.