[galdosdi]

This kind of exercise is underrated. A similar one from a former job: the takehome assignment was something like "Here are some CSV files with sanitized real data from our business. It needs to be converted to XML. Use Java (the language our team mostly used then and there) and expect to be judged on your code readability" IIRC there may have been something along the lines of "Bonus: Now we want to be able to convert to/from JSON and perhaps other unknown as yet formats. Refactor your code accordingly"

Other than not using a library, nobody can complain it's unrealistic. Real enterprise devs spend a fair amount of time munging data from one format to another or otherwise "gluing" pieces together. And the kind of person I'd want to hire should be able to complete it to quickly to complain about a "time consuming take home assignment"

And it provides plenty enough opportunity to make sure you're hiring someone who writes code that is pleasant for their teammates to work with.

IIRC the process before that was just the usual 5min recruiter chat and after it was a single on site panel interview before offer.