[randomdude402]

I totally agree. People say that a take home project is terrible, but most people I talk to who aren't recent graduates also dread live coding algorithms that will never be used on the job.

The place I'm at now asked me if I wanted to come in and code as round one of interviews or code up a little something on my own time for a couple engineers to review.

For me, it was a no brainier to code at my comfy desk at home for a few hours. Going into the city would have been an hour each way and about $50 worth of gas and tolls. I would much prefer not to bother with all that unless and until somebody has looked at my work closely enough to decide they are interested.

[dcow]

Yep! If it’s a question about respect as so many people seem to portray it, then the easy solution is to offer candidates a choice. But personally, I will always prefer working at my pace on my time in my style and having people judge the output once I deem it ready. If I really need/want the job I’ll make the time. What is an extra few hours relative to the new position, team, etc., that you're aiming for? For me it feels infinitely worse to not quite get through a difficult algorithmic problem on a whiteboard only to have the solution obviously materialize during later reflection when you have a clear headspace, and to know you were judged solely on that, than to give it a fair shot on your terms and be passed on because your style/work is not what they're interested in. I'd rather be somewhere that values my actual output.