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by kevmo314 774 days ago
> Nothing stops someone spending 6 hours on a "2 hour" take home test

I once got rejected from a YC company because I responded more than three hours after a two hour take home test was given.

So you certainly could stop them. Doesn't really leave the best impression of the company though.

And if you're curious I wasn't actually working on it for three hours, I just started late :)
2 comments
ElevenLathe 774 days ago
This selects for people that are chained to their email and slavishly do whatever the company says immediately -- probably intentional, and you dodged a bullet.
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orangevelcro 774 days ago
If a company sends me a take-home, they aren't getting it back any less than 24 hours later. I prefer if I can open it, read it and then come back to it later.

I hate it when I have to immediately open it and finish it, like a timed coding test, although I don't bother with those because I don't think I've ever passed one...

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tharkun__ 774 days ago
This. Email is async. I don't have notifications set up for email. I go over private email once a day. Yes even when interviewing this would only be something like once every few hours.

We can set up a time at which you will send me the take home in advance of course. Like "we will send this to you Friday around 6p.m." coz I told you that this is when I will have time for it.

You send it to me 1:37pm on a Wednesday? Forget it. I am working during that time so I won't see your email and even if I did I have no time for it. I'm working.

In the past I've even written a quick batch file to change all of the creation and modification time stamps for all files to the exact same time where they wanted a zip file. As well as setting the date and time of the git commit to a time before they sent me the take home where they wanted me to commit something to a repo.

It either goes completely unnoticed and that's fine or it makes for a nice technical convo. Meaning if someone notices and talks to me about it it would make it more likely for me to accept an offer because they have people working there already that know and understand such technical details and find them fun too. Vs. most where they would be in shock and awe how such a thing is even possible.

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