Tech IndustryMar 4, 2020
Gracenote0ddba11

Take home exercise

I hate take home assignment. Every time I complete one, I end up getting rejected without any actionable feedback. Last week a startup sent me a take home assignment to work. Recruiter said it generally takes ~3-4hrs to complete the given assignment. The assignment is pretty challenging from concurrency standpoint. Assignment is asking me to build a highly concurrent Uber/Lyft style job scheduling system. On top of that it asks me to write tests/documents/comments so that the production grade finished product. It was more like ~1-2 days of work for me & I decided not to do it. Its been a week since I received the assignment & now the recruiter is bugging me. He is even ready to jump on a call to see why I didnt attempt/finish the exercise ? I want to tell the truth to the recruiter that it is not fair to expect candidates to finish such a huge task even before the start of interview process. Is it ok to tell the truth or just ignore his emails/ghost him? TC: 170k #leetcode

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Aktana sgFd37 Mar 4, 2020

Sometimes I feel they are just looking for ideas šŸ˜

Indeed have Mar 4, 2020

I donā€™t mind takehomes if the rest of the interview is shortened. i.e., if I pass, I should have a quick chat with the hiring manager and thatā€™s it. Companies that use multi-hour takehomes as a filter before the ā€˜realā€™ interview can eat shit - thatā€™s just disrespectful.

SAP wpzE60 Mar 4, 2020

Definitely. I interviewed for a security company a while back and they gave me homework that took me quite a few hours, decoding malware etc. Then the guy wanted to ask me another bunch of technical questions over the phone! To top it off, they couldn't match my TC. It was pretty big waste of time, aside from learning my lesson about such interview processes

SAP wpzE60 Mar 4, 2020

No, Sucuri

Aktana sgFd37 Mar 4, 2020

Definitely such a complex assignment is not distantly possible in 1 day let alone 4 hours. I just donā€™t get, from where and how do these recruiters get the estimation numbers in their head?

Doximity DatNewGuy Mar 4, 2020

Itā€™s so stupid to ask candidates to finish take home assignment when the company is a so-so start up. They donā€™t know they are one of the companies candidates apply and no one is really desperate to get a job there. Itā€™s only gonna slow the process and those who spend more time on the assignment will be unpopular candidates. Who has all the time for it? šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø

Amazon elotes Mar 4, 2020

On a similar note, I refused/procrastinated for weeks on taking one of those personality and "critical thinking" online assessments for another company I was being considered for. My final email was essentially "sorry to inform I have taken another role". I'd rather do a take home tech assessment than those stupid and waste of time "critical thinking" tests.

CDK Global asdfpdx Mar 4, 2020

I think that says a lot about the company culture. Bullet dodged, and in my opinion, it is up to you if you want to ghost him and move on or provide feedback (something they donā€™t/wonā€™t give you). If I were you, Iā€™d have asked for a more in-depth discussion regarding the assignment and expectations (if I really wanted to work for that company - otherwise Iā€™d have just ghosted them. Theyā€™ll do the same to you, given the opportunity. You said it yourself.

Intel mRbh27 Mar 4, 2020

Oh, cā€™mon. I donā€™t love interview homework either, but itā€™s entirely fair to request a sample of work in order to compare candidatesā€™ practical ability to research, create, and mock up solutions under tight deadlines. An unwillingness to do this suggests a lack of desire to join the company.

Indeed have Mar 4, 2020

Itā€™s a good way to select for people who have time to sweat the details on homework (read: the currently unemployed)

New
milefeuile Mar 4, 2020

I had one doing a prescreen, then a hacker rank and then they came up with the idea of take home. I told them that, as I work, my time is rather limited and it would be best for me to apply to 3 more jobs than doing the take-home. Surprisingly, 4 months later they hit me again, inviting me for an on-site, cause by the looks of it they hadn't found their rockstar. I flat out refused as I started a new position.

Nutanix ramdev Mar 4, 2020

Itā€™s a way of getting some work done for early stage startups

Uber ram4 Mar 5, 2020

Big name companies with high liquid TC can get away with it. But if youā€™re a startup asking for that...? Pass