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I wonder if that's why I wasn't a good fit for a recent company I interviewed with using a take-home assignment... bear in mind it's been at least a decade sinc

I wonder if that's why I wasn't a good fit for a recent company I interviewed with using a take-home assignment... bear in mind it's been at least a decade since I last took a take-home, so things might have changed. I received the task on Friday evening, I spent the week-end thinking about the problem. Monday I had actual work and on Tuesday, I spent a day coming up with a shit implementation. Then, I started improving it for two days until I think it got in a good shape. I basically wanted to transmit that I can start from the base, add functionality and then iterate on the problem by documenting, refactoring, adding tests, evolving the code base etc. So I'd say I worked for around 24 hours over 168 hours and the feedback I got was: > Thank you so much for your interest in joining <redacted> and the time you took to submit the coding challenge. In reviewing your application though, I have decided not to invite you to the next round of interviews as I believe there are other candidates that are a better fit for what <redacted> needs right now. This is turning into a subjective rant, part of me wants to delete this but I'm just gonna go ahead and finish it; When I was younger, I used to love take-home assignments because it felt better than just doing algorithms, and then I used to get proper feedback, what I did wrong, what aspects I could improve in the future etc. This feedback gives me nothing. Just the realization I wasted time.

chiefalchemist 5y ago
I had a take home a couple months ago. I'll spare you the details but if the output was to be non-hacky it was 4 or 5 days of work. I put in ~20 hrs, sent it back and said, "Here's where I'm at. I'd love to finish it but it's not reasonable to expect so much time if the final answer might be 'No thanks.' I'm not into such waterfalls..." To this I'll add, I have a saying: "How you hire, is who you hire." 40 hrs? Waterfall? 2021?? And we all have been led to believe dinosaurs are extinct :)
icythere 5y ago
Same here. Quite a long time ago I got a take-home assignment. It's about setting up a router on a linux-based machine. I was going with a design that focused on maintenance and understanding, so I decided not to use iptables directly. After a few days I gave up, because there was an issue with the upstream distribution that I was not aware of. I actually had a very good setup after the _deadline_, but it's too late. I would never do take-home assignment again =))
real-dino 5y ago
You have to lie about take-home assignments. That is the accepted way. I had a take home test that was to last 2 hours, and so I promised myself I would spend no longer on it. I provided a complete log of what I did minute by minute for a take home test for the last test I did as a defensive measure... There was no break, no pondering, this was flat out knowing exactly what needed to be done and just typing constantly.... 0:00 - started cloning 2:37 - finished cloning 3:11 - npm install 3:53 - localhost working 7:24 - removed timeout (intentional bug left in) 10:41 - Got images returned from the server (npm run serve) 13:27 - CSS started - thinking about design 22:26 - Grid for desktop 36:16 - Included user info 49:56 - responsive 56:37 - Added performance section 1:07 - Name form 1:21 - Email validation 1:35 - Most fields done. Need DOB 1:42 - DOB done 1:53 - form styling 1:57 - tidying up 2:01 - Saved this file I didn't end up getting the job including feedback such as... - Did not upload job search indicating repo to GitHub - Didn't use `specific css attribute` - Grid is rudimentary (the 11 minute one I made) - HTML could be more semantic - Form validation for name allows numbers (actually a programming falacy that names can technically be anything) - Complaints about having multiple classes in one file. I'm wondering exactly where I could have fit these in? The week before I spent 4 hours on a task and delivered it within 12 hours of the assignment. I got an email with a single paragraph. `Unfortunately, after reviewing, the team has decided that they won't be moving forward to the next stage of the process with you` These tests all have unrealistic expectations. I used to enjoy doing them for the learning experience, but now, it's just a solid graft with zero downtime coding the same app time after time. So whenever I chat to a recruiter about the recruitment process I always drill down into the take home test, and the process of doing that let's them know that I won't be doing any take home tests. You have to simply question it sometimes and you can get it upgraded to a pair programming assignment which if you are honest, and have experience works in your favour.
- IggleSniggle 5y ago
  Oh man that is a truly fantastic timeline. Thanks so much for sharing it. It really clarified for me why I can’t ever seem to get the take-home assignment done. I care too much! I’ve withdrawn my application the last few times I’ve gotten task home assignments: I’d get to the 2 or 3 hour mark, realize I’m still working on clarifying my documentation (because I want to communicate that I consider this essential to a minimal product) and haven’t finished the feature(s) yet, call myself a shitty developer who is apparently an imposter, and then call it quits.
jcadam 5y ago
I always do better with take-home assignments than I do with a whiteboard or live-coding interview.

chiefalchemist 5y ago

I had a take home a couple months ago. I'll spare you the details but if the output was to be non-hacky it was 4 or 5 days of work. I put in ~20 hrs, sent it back and said, "Here's where I'm at. I'd love to finish it but it's not reasonable to expect so much time if the final answer might be 'No thanks.' I'm not into such waterfalls..." To this I'll add, I have a saying: "How you hire, is who you hire." 40 hrs? Waterfall? 2021?? And we all have been led to believe dinosaurs are extinct :)

icythere 5y ago

Same here. Quite a long time ago I got a take-home assignment. It's about setting up a router on a linux-based machine. I was going with a design that focused on maintenance and understanding, so I decided not to use iptables directly. After a few days I gave up, because there was an issue with the upstream distribution that I was not aware of. I actually had a very good setup after the _deadline_, but it's too late. I would never do take-home assignment again =))

real-dino 5y ago

You have to lie about take-home assignments. That is the accepted way. I had a take home test that was to last 2 hours, and so I promised myself I would spend no longer on it. I provided a complete log of what I did minute by minute for a take home test for the last test I did as a defensive measure... There was no break, no pondering, this was flat out knowing exactly what needed to be done and just typing constantly.... 0:00 - started cloning 2:37 - finished cloning 3:11 - npm install 3:53 - localhost working 7:24 - removed timeout (intentional bug left in) 10:41 - Got images returned from the server (npm run serve) 13:27 - CSS started - thinking about design 22:26 - Grid for desktop 36:16 - Included user info 49:56 - responsive 56:37 - Added performance section 1:07 - Name form 1:21 - Email validation 1:35 - Most fields done. Need DOB 1:42 - DOB done 1:53 - form styling 1:57 - tidying up 2:01 - Saved this file I didn't end up getting the job including feedback such as... - Did not upload job search indicating repo to GitHub - Didn't use `specific css attribute` - Grid is rudimentary (the 11 minute one I made) - HTML could be more semantic - Form validation for name allows numbers (actually a programming falacy that names can technically be anything) - Complaints about having multiple classes in one file. I'm wondering exactly where I could have fit these in? The week before I spent 4 hours on a task and delivered it within 12 hours of the assignment. I got an email with a single paragraph. `Unfortunately, after reviewing, the team has decided that they won't be moving forward to the next stage of the process with you` These tests all have unrealistic expectations. I used to enjoy doing them for the learning experience, but now, it's just a solid graft with zero downtime coding the same app time after time. So whenever I chat to a recruiter about the recruitment process I always drill down into the take home test, and the process of doing that let's them know that I won't be doing any take home tests. You have to simply question it sometimes and you can get it upgraded to a pair programming assignment which if you are honest, and have experience works in your favour.

IggleSniggle 5y ago
Oh man that is a truly fantastic timeline. Thanks so much for sharing it. It really clarified for me why I can’t ever seem to get the take-home assignment done. I care too much! I’ve withdrawn my application the last few times I’ve gotten task home assignments: I’d get to the 2 or 3 hour mark, realize I’m still working on clarifying my documentation (because I want to communicate that I consider this essential to a minimal product) and haven’t finished the feature(s) yet, call myself a shitty developer who is apparently an imposter, and then call it quits.

jcadam 5y ago

I always do better with take-home assignments than I do with a whiteboard or live-coding interview.