[gsibble]

That's why I try to make take homes fun. I like the elevator problem in Python. Try to make elevator software that passes the unit tests. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. Very hard.

I don't really care how successful you are. I want to see how readable and maintainable your code is. Sometimes I just ask for example projects that I can read.

But I do need to know you can, you know, actually do the job. I personally find in person coding significantly more stressful than take homes. So what would you suggest? How do I test someone's ability to code?

[harshalizee]

It's not about if the take homes are fun or not. Far too many companies have varied take home tests that can take an hour or a 40-hour work week only to be ghosted after submission. I don't partake in any asymmetric interview processes, and many places are happy to let me skip it. I'm happy to sit on a zoom call with one of your engineers for a couple of hours and do whatever they want me code in that time. I'm just not into doing it on my own time with no cost to the interviewer.

[jenscow]

So if I asked you to do to a 1-2 hour coding task, you'd only do it if I were on a zoom call with you while you did it?

[harshalizee]

Yup! The interviewer can see my thought process. I can also evaluate my peers and ask questions about the work. The interviewer can also see how easy or cumbersome it is to set up the environment and code in the allotted time. Win-win.

[jenscow]

If I was hiring a junior, perhaps that would have some use.

[naniwaduni]

It's not about what's useful to you. Not everything has to be about you. It's acknowledgement that the interviewee's time is worth something (approximately about as much as dev time) and that you're willing to pay for it.

[yupper32]

Yes. Put in the time with me to show you're serious. Otherwise you could mass spam candidates, most of which you don't actually care about.

[gsibble]

That's fine. We're happy to let you do that if that's how you'd prefer to show us you can code.

[ipaddr]

If you need experienced developers to show you they can code you are only going to get amateurs.