Everybody is weighing in on whether coding tests are good or bad, and whether or not they personally would do one. Framing them as either good or bad (or would

Everybody is weighing in on whether coding tests are good or bad, and whether or not they personally would do one. Framing them as either good or bad (or would vs would not take) misses the point though. What we're discussing isn't a binary thing, it's an elasticity curve from something like (effort required / lucrativeness of job) to the willingness of the candidate to complete the assignment. On that basis, I'd say there definitely are cases in which I would spend 50 hours on a take home assignment with even a 1% chance of success. There are also cases where I wouldn't spend five minutes on a take home assignment with a 100% chance of success. If you're going to give take home assignments, the effort required should be in line with how amazing a job you're offering. If you're offering people $1mm/yr to work on <that thing you love>, putting a huge filter out in front is probably in your best interest. If you're trying to get someone to move to SF for $70k a year... As a side note: if you're going to have a take home test, have the decency to make the scenario interesting and the answer illuminating.