[kuratkull]

I'm your average skilled introverted engineer. But after more than a dozen years of experience and problem solving, I'd go with #2. I feel i'd be able to explain myself much more easily, have to do much less work, and probably have much more ways to impress the interviewers with face to face. I have also been on the receiving side of take-home tests and I know how hard it is to impress someone with those.

[ozim]

For me problem word I see here is „impress”.

When I hire I don’t need someone to impress me, he has to present himself as able to do the job.

I think a lot of devs think they have to hire someone that impresses them and we end up with insane tests and adversarial interviews.

Yeah of course there will be people who will blow through the task much faster than others with better quality than average and they will impress me and they will get the offer in first place - but often times they already get multiple offers and after negotiation they will pick some higher offer and we have to get someone we can afford to do the job.