[janephilipps]

Thanks! I definitely understand that many people are opposed to take-home challenges because they can be very time consuming. For me, I use them as a learning opportunity, so even though they are not necessarily going to be used or maintained in the future, they can be a great way to practice or get better at a specific language or tech stack.

[PeptoKelpto]

While this might be true, most developers (in my locale at least) fill their GitHub with little projects meant to fit this exact purpose. I would 100% consider someone with some semblance of a GitHub over someone who submitted a well done takehome with no GitHub. That's why I don't bother with them. I would rather see that you are at least trying to work on yourself as a developer outside of interviews and work. It shows initiative, dedication and a host of other great attributes that I just don't see from a takehome. I'm not saying there aren't great coders without GitHub accounts, but I would for sure be asking why not. I think a better use of time is to do "production" code on a whiteboard. FizzBuzz in person, if done properly, can tell you way more than any take home. Start with basic FizzBuzz or any other basic interview question and make them write it functionally and tesably and mock out some sample tests. In person, this will tell you a ton about the candidate and isn't super stressful for anyone because it's a well known baseline interview question. It also makes the interviewee feel like the company is investing as much time in the interview process as they are.

[busterarm]

Many of us signed contracts where 100% of the development work we do belongs to our company even in our off time. Myself included (though it's only if the work is in the same industry -- at the discretion of my employer of course). Some of the best companies hiring the best engineers do this. You are seriously limiting your pool if you favor candidates who spend their off time contributing to their GitHub. It's a bad bias to have.

Worse still, I've interviewed people who have put their employers' work on their personal GitHub, publicly and without permission, solely because of this reason. I have serious ethics/intelligence questions about those people and they become a strong no-hire every time I see it.

[PeptoKelpto]

I guess we will just have to disagree. What works for me may not work for others. I would never sign a contract that sells all my personal work to the company I only get paid 9 to 5 for, and I don't know anyone who has. Also, it's pretty evident when someone posts their companies code to their GitHub. Simple questions and looking at the code can dispel that. If they do manage to squeak by and pass all the interviews, I don't see how a takehome would have made it any harder anyway.