Take homes for me are "just no". No, I won't spend six hours working on some throwaway project, in order to have you spend five minutes looking at it and then

Take homes for me are "just no". No, I won't spend six hours working on some throwaway project, in order to have you spend five minutes looking at it and then decide you don't want to hire me. The problem with this (and with grinding leetcode) is that it's not symmetric. If I'm in an interview, and you're wasting my time, you're also wasting your own. So the employer has some incentive not to waste my time. With a take home, though, they can feel free to waste my time, because it doesn't waste any of theirs. (And leetcode is the same. Yes, asking it in the interview takes their time as well. But all the time I spend grinding in preparation, they do not spend.) For one special job that I really wanted to get, sure, I'd do a take home. For your average job for average pay? No. Your job isn't worth it. Don't waste my time.