How to Avoid Common Pitfalls and Ace Your Take Home Assignment

Jessica Wilkins

Jessica Wilkins

Jul 20, 2022

During the interview process, you might be asked to complete a short take home assignment. This usually consists of building out a small project with required tasks to be completed in a set time frame. This is a popular way to test an applicant's skills and assess how they can tackle problems. But what is the best way to approach a take home assignment and what are some common pitfalls people run into?

In this article, I will provide tips on how to ace your take home assignment and move to the next round of interviews. I will also provide tips on how to avoid common mistakes with the take home projects.

What does the take home project entail?

The take home project offers a chance for the prospective employer to see how you approach building out real world applications. For the frontend, you might be asked to work with an API and display some results in a table or card layout. You might also be asked duplicate a web page from a Figma design and add some functionality like search or pagination. For the backend, you will be tested on your knowledge of server side logic, and be asked to design some APIs.

There will be a list of criteria that you have to meet by a set deadline. There will also be notes on hosting your app and which libraries and frameworks you are allowed to use, if any.

If you want to see examples of take home projects, then please take a look at the following links:

  • freeCodeCamp take home projects
  • Github search results for take home projects

Make sure you understand the project requirements

Before you start building out the project, it is important that you understand all of the project requirements. If you need any clarifications, please ask and do not make assumptions. You don't want to fail a project because you misunderstand the directions.

This is also a good chance to see how well the company communicates project details to you. If they are able to offer up clear directions and answer any clarifying questions, that is a good indicator of what it will be like to work for them. If they are not able to provide clear directions and have poor communication skills, then that can also be a sign of what it would be like to work there.

Plan out your time efficiently

Time management is crucial when it comes to take home projects. Since you only have a short amount of time to build the project, it is important that you first plan out how to build the basic structure. You will need to identify which parts of the project will require the most attention and how long it will realistically take do each component of the project. It is important to account for the time it will take to fix bugs and other unexpected issues during the development phase.

Once you have mapped out how long it will take to build a basic prototype, you will need to look into adding extra features to help you stand out in the applicant pool. You will need to decide on which features to add and how long it will take to successfully build it out. Try not to fall into the trap of underestimating how long a feature will take to build. If it doesn't look feasible in your alloted time frame then it is best to rethink it or leave it out completely.

Make sure to adhere to best practices and focus on clean code

The goal of these projects, is to get a sense of your coding style and technical skill level. This is your chance to ensure that your work adheres to best practices and is clean and readable by other developers. You want to make sure that you are doing things like using clear concise variable and function names, adhering to the KISS and DRY principles, and optimizing your code so it runs efficiency.

Your potential employer is not looking for perfect code and understands that you are working under a time constraint. But they do want to get a sense of your code quality and the type of work you might contribute to a project. Do the best you can to write clean readable code while still making sure the basic functionality is in tact.

Avoid over engineering your project

Take home projects can offer a great opportunity to develop your skills and demonstrate what you can do. But it is important that you do not over engineer your application because it sends the wrong message to potential employers. There is no reason to over complicate your code and stuff you application with tons of extra unnecessary libraries and frameworks. Remember that employers will ask you about your code and technology decisions and if there doesn't seem to be a clear reason behind your decisions, then it can be seen as a negative.

Make sure to document your work

Documentation is an important part of any software project and you need to be able to demonstrate that in your take home assignment. Make sure to have a detailed readme including your architectural and design decisions, features of the application, testing, how to run the app locally, and a list of the technologies used. You can also include a section on features you would have liked to build if you had more time. By providing a documented project, employers will learn about your thought process and get a sense of how you approach problem solving.

Should you include testing in your take home project?

I think you should definitely include some testing in your take home assignment. During your planning stage, you will need to set aside some time for coming up with test cases and deciding on which testing tool you will use. If you are new to testing, try to include some small tests to communicate to your potential employer that you understand testing is part of the job. If you are a more experienced developer, your employers will expect you to include testing.

How should you approach styling?

Even if you are not a natural born designer, it is still important to create a clean professional looking design. It is fine if your design is simple because they are not testing you on your original design abilities. Just make sure that your project is responsive and has good UI/UX. If you are allowed to use CSS frameworks like Tailwind CSS or Bootstrap, then it will make designing your app a little bit easier.

How long should a take home project take?

Most companies will give you a timeline to complete the project and submit it. In my opinion, 3-5 days is a good range to complete the assignment. If the employer is expecting you to take a couple of weeks or more to do the assignment, then that is a sign they are not respecting your time. There have been a lot of stories of people spending 40-60+ hours on a take assignment and still not getting the job. If you receive an assignment where it is obvious it will take an excess amount of time to complete, then you might consider reassessing the situation and possibly not moving forward with the interview.

Take home projects can be a great alternative to the typical Leetcode style interviews. This is a chance for you to show off your technical skills amd build an app in the process. It is important that you meet all of the requirements and add some extra functionality to stand out in the applicant pool. Also make sure to document your solution and test out your project before submitting it.

I hope you enjoyed this article and best of luck on your future interviews

Author Jessica Wilkins

Jessica Wilkins is a classical musician turned Software Engineer. Prior to joining the tech industry, she spent her time running her own sheet music company (JDW Sheet Music) as well as performing and teaching in Los Angeles, CA. She enjoys working with React and TypeScript. She is also a prolific technical writer for freeCodeCamp.

This Dot Labs is a development consultancy that is trusted by top industry companies, including Stripe, Xero, Wikimedia, Docusign, and Twilio. This Dot takes a hands-on approach by providing tailored development strategies to help you approach your most pressing challenges with clarity and confidence. Whether it's bridging the gap between business and technology or modernizing legacy systems, you’ll find a breadth of experience and knowledge you need. Check out how This Dot Labs can empower your tech journey.

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interview take home assignment reddit

Take Home Interview Assignments

6 tips for managers and interviewers to do them right.

interview take home assignment reddit

With a new year, many of us are looking for that new role. The Great Resignation of 2021 continues to accelerate, and I expect we’ll see lots of people and jobs in motion.

(want to listen to the podcast version of this newsletter? check the link below)

Maybe you’re interviewing now. Maybe you have roles to fill on your team. Maybe you are looking to switch jobs or companies. On either side of the table, whether interviewer or interviewee, take home assignments may play a part in the decision. This goes for many roles, from UX to product management to engineering and beyond.

We covered this topic (among others) in a recent Product by Design podcast.

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Take Home Assignments

Take home assignments include anything you ask a candidate to do outside of your actual interviews. It includes specific prep work that you may have a candidate do for an interview or round of interviews.

Kyle Evans - Product Thinking - Take Home Assignments for Interviews

I’m generally a fan of take home assignments. I like them when structured correctly. They give managers the ability to see aspects of a candidate that may otherwise be difficult to explore in standard interviews. They give candidates the ability to showcase more skills than just answering interview questions, whether that is writing, presenting, critical thinking, etc.

Take home work also allows for some flexibility and time to think. Rather than trying to answer questions on the spot, a candidate can think through it and prepare. I personally value that as a candidate, since I’m better at preparation than on-the-spot answers. I also value it as an interviewer because I get to see the best of someone, rather than potentially a flustered version of them.

All that said, it is important we structure take home assignments in the right way to get the most out of them and not to burden candidates.

So how do we do that?

Tips For Creating Take Home Assignments

Make it clear.

First, make the expectations for the assignment clear. If you want a candidate to create a presentation, tell them that. If you want them to prepare 3 wireframes, then tell them you are looking for 3 wireframes.

There may be some value in leaving work open-ended, so candidates can approach however they like. But that should also be clear.

When I was hiring for a UX designer, we created a take home assignment for our candidates with a specific problem area and a deliverable of 3-5 mockups they could walk us through. We tried to be very clear about what we hoped to see and what the purpose was. And it worked well.

As a candidate, if you feel like something is unclear, ask about it. Remember, hiring managers are people too, and often really busy. So they may have overlooked something or just not taken enough time to flesh out the details. Don’t assume that asking questions will hurt your chances. If something is unclear to you, it’s probably unclear to others, so don’t go away and get to work if you don’t feel like you understand. It will be a massive waste of your time and everyone else’s.

I struggled early in my career to ask enough questions. I felt like I should always understand, and if I didn’t, it was my fault. But that’s not necessarily the case. Don’t be afraid to ask questions!

Make it Appropriate for the Role

As a hiring manager, you should ensure that what you’re asking candidates to do is appropriate for the role. Meaning that a junior UX designer shouldn’t have to create a design system. Or a product manager shouldn’t create a strategy presentation for a new product you’re thinking about.

Those may be good tasks for a potential head of product or UX lead, but they are too much for more junior roles. Make sure that the ask is congruent with the role.

Make it Timeboxed

Along the same lines as ensuring that the take home work aligns with the role, you should also ensure that there is a way to limit the work as well.

This involves really thinking through the structure of what you’re asking. Since you can’t actually dictate how much time a candidate spends on a task, you need to be really thoughtful about what you’re asking someone to do.

Because, let’s be real, even if you said that you don’t expect something to take more than an hour or two, those Type A personalities who demand perfection of themselves will likely spend an order of magnitude more time on it, especially for opportunities they really want.

I know, because I’ve done that.

I recall an assignment I received several years ago. It involved preparing a presentation around a potential new product. It wasn’t supposed to be more preparation than an hour or two (yeah right). I spent several hours each night for a week working on that. And then at least 8 hours the final day before I sent it over. All told, I probably spent 20-30 hours working on it. An order of magnitude more than I should have.

I did a tremendous amount of research into the industry. I created not only a pitch, but an entirely new business model. I refined all the transitions and made the entire presentation really eye-catching and professional. It was absolutely insane.

By the end, I was not only convinced on the product, I was ready to pursue it whether or not I got the role I was interviewing for. I was almost ready to go raise funds and create my own company.

I didn’t though. And didn’t get the role either. Which worked out just great because that company ended up not creating the new business line, and doing a massive amount of layoffs shortly after we had spoken.

Regardless, the level of effort I put in was far too much. That is partly on me, but also on the manager for not structuring the assignment in a way that limits the time spent.

In my own interviews, I intentionally limit what I ask. Like I mentioned above, that may include limiting the number of wireframes. For product managers, I may ask for a one-page document, a half-page answer to a question, or a three-slide presentation on a limited topic. These give me the opportunity to see specific skills in action (like writing and presenting), without opening the door for endless hours of writing or preparation.

Make it Outside Your Company’s Problems

It’s easy to create a problem-set for the problems you’re dealing with as a company or team. But it’s not fair to ask candidates, who may have limited knowledge of your company or industry, to solve your specific problems.

Additionally, it’s hard to be objective about a candidate’s work when you are so close to the problems and solutions yourself.

This creates the potential for bias. If I give a candidate a take home assignment that very closely mirrors what we’re doing on our team or within our company, I may prefer the candidate who best approximates my own thinking on the issue. And that may blind me as a manager to candidates who arrived at different solutions, but had solid thinking as well as solid writing or presentation skills.

For all of this, I prefer to keep take home assignments more generic and further away from our company- and team-specific issues. Additionally, asking candidates to solve problems specific to your company gives the feeling that you’re asking them to do work for you before you even hire them. That generally isn’t the case, but it gives a bad impression.

Make it a Discussion, Not a Filter

I was reading recently about a company that uses a take home assignment as an initial filter. Before candidates even talk with a manager or recruiter, the company is sending them work to do to be considered.

Don’t do that.

Take home work should come later in the interview process, once the interviewer and the candidate feel like the role is a potential good fit. It should add to the conversation.

As an interviewer, you should only ask for things that you are willing to spend time reviewing and discussing. Take home work should be part of the interview process. If you ask for something as a manager, you should have an interview where you walk through the work, ask questions, and allow the candidate to discuss. This is true of presentations, written documents, etc.

As a hiring manager, I want to see the work, but also want to let the candidate tell me more. If a candidate prepares a presentation, it makes sense to let them present and discuss. If they create wireframes, we want to understand their thinking and ask questions. If they’ve prepared a business document or future press release (one of my favorites) we want to discuss and debate. That is what all these items are for, in an interview and on the job.

As a candidate, if you see companies using take home work as a filter, walk away and don’t look back. You’ve dodged a bullet.

Remember, an hour-long presentation by a candidate requires numerous hours of preparation. Anyone who has done public speaking or created presentations knows good ones require significant work. Potentially, dozens of hours could go into creating an hour-long presentation. Good writing and designing and coding is also labor-intensive and difficult.

As hiring managers, we should understand this difficulty. On top of that, interviewing for roles is rarely the only thing a candidate has on their plate. They may work full-time, have a family, or have other activities and responsibilities. We need to understand this and empathize.

This may include giving the right amount of time for a candidate to do the work they need.

I recall one company many years ago asking me to complete a take home assignment in a standard time-frame they give to all candidates. But that didn’t work for me because I had other things going on. I could understand that they want to level the playing field for all candidates by allowing for the same amount of time, but we have to understand that giving each candidate two days to work on something does not necessarily make it equal . Some candidates may have nothing else to do, and can dedicate 10 hours per day. While others may only have one spare hour per day.

Understand this. And work with candidates to create realistic expectations. The main point isn’t to filter them out, but to give them an opportunity to create good work. If that takes two days for one candidate and six days for another, that is fine.

As a candidate, if it doesn’t seem like your interviewer is showing much empathy or understanding, walk away. It is most likely they are looking for cogs to plug into a system, and believe that they just need to churn through enough people to get there. You want to be valued for the work you do and who you are, not simply for being a cog in the system.

As managers, take home work can be a powerful tool to understand potential candidates. It can give them a chance to show skills and understanding that is difficult in a standard interview format. As candidates, take home assignments can give you more flexibility and an opportunity to go deeper into certain skills you have.

But for take home assignments to be effective interview tools, they need to be structured correctly. Assignments should add meaningfully to the discussion and process, not detract from it or become too onerous. But with a few key tips, we can all make the most of our time, our interviews, and our skills we’d like to showcase.

Other Good Links

In Praise of Unglamorous American Invention (article) - Interesting article praising some lower-key inventions. It includes wood glue, which is near and dear to my heart as a woodworker.

“While some luthiers still use animal glue when they build stringed instruments—yes, the kind rendered from animal hides—most woodworkers have switched to PVA, and especially Titebond, and especially (for projects that need it) Titebond III, which inspires arias of awe all over the woodworking internet…”

The Surprising Power of The Long Game (article) - I’m always about the long game, and this was a good take on short vs long games.

“Every action is a step toward the short game or the long game. You can’t opt-out and you can’t play a long-term game in everything, you need to pick what matters to you. But in everything you do time amplifies the difference between long and short-term games. The question you need to think about is when and where to play a long-term game. A good place to start is with things that compound: knowledge, relationships, and finances.”

The Tech and Products that Stood Out At CES 2022 (article) - I love CES. It’s fun to see new products that may come soon. And other products that are so out there we may never actually see them. Engadget also wrapped up their Best of CES with more.

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Why Take-Home Assignments are the Biggest Mistake for Hiring Managers

interview take home assignment reddit

There’s no “right” way to hire.

Some companies are comfortable having a 30-minute conversation and pulling the trigger, while others might want a couple of steps and additional interviewers involved in the process to ensure they’re getting multiple opinions on who to hire. 

And while some employers make it a point to stay on top of the latest industry trends like the ones found in our 2023 Salary Guide , others fall short and — time and time again — make the same mistakes.

Why the take-home assignment interview is a big mistake

Different interview processes work for different companies. But there is one interview mistake I’ve seen across various industries — for both contract and full-time hires — that creates a major bottleneck in the interview process, and that is the take-home assignment .

Take-home assignments can be called something different depending on what the role is.

  • For a marketing position, it might be a case study .
  • For a software development position, it might be a coding test .
  • For a client-facing role, it might be a presentation .

Regardless of the name, the outcome is often the same: candidates you were excited about drop out of the interview process, and you find yourself back at square one again and again. 

From my experience in staffing, I strongly advise my clients against incorporating a take-home assignment into their interview process. 

Why You Shouldn’t Assign a Take-Home Assignment

No one likes to do take-home assignments for free..

When asking candidates to do an assignment during the interview process, it’s often the work that they will be doing once they get hired, so it’s essentially asking them to work for free.

For candidates, time is money, and it’s time that can be spent working for their clients who are paying them. 

This interview mistake doesn’t respect people’s personal time.

Imagine you’re working 9-5 and looking for a new job. You also have two kids who need to be picked up from school, fed, bathed, and put to bed every night.

You are so overloaded in your job that you sometimes have to work after hours. When would you have the time to also fit in doing an assignment that can take anywhere from 2-10 hours?

Candidates often cannot prioritize doing additional work because it will take time away from something else they need to get done. The longer it will take a candidate to find the time to complete the take-home assignment, the more likely their interest in the job opportunity will wane. 

Other companies aren’t making this interview mistake.

As much as you want to vet candidates for the right skill level, it’s important to be competitive with how other companies are hiring, so you don’t lose out on top talent.

Creatives often get hired based on their portfolios—without an interview. Developers get hired off of a single Zoom interview.

Higher-level roles get hired after multiple rounds of interviews, which function as conversations with various stakeholders at a company, without being asked to do homework for an interview other than preparing.

If you ask a candidate to do an assignment before engaging them in the next step of an interview process, they might say they are happy to do it, but the truth is they will usually wait to start it until completing any other interviews they have lined up in hopes of getting a decision from another employer sooner.

This interview mistake fails to filter out people who aren’t serious about the role.

Many companies think these assignments will show how much a candidate wants to work at their company.

I strongly caution against this logic. The post-COVID job market is more competitive than ever, as companies with once-traditional mindsets around employees working onsite have adapted to now offer fully remote roles.

This means that candidates now have access to nationwide job opportunities and are getting job offers faster than ever before.

If seeing how serious someone is about a role at your specific company is important to you, gauging how much they researched the company before the interview is a great way to find that out.

Hiring Managers Should Avoid the Take-Home Assignment

Making the common interview mistake of requiring a take-home assignment most often results in the assignment not getting completed and the candidate pursuing a different employment opportunity that doesn’t require an additional assignment. 

It’s understandable that a hiring manager would want to test a person’s skill before offering them a job. The good news is that there are ways to do this that don’t involve asking a candidate to do extra work.

Ways to Avoid Making this Interview Mistake

Ask to see sample work from potential candidates..

Copywriters and designers have portfolios, developers have GitHubs, and high-level individuals can often pull sample proposals and plans they’ve put together in the past to exhibit their work.

If you have questions about how much they did themselves, what went into the decisions they made, or other related questions, the interview is the perfect place to dive in and find out. 

Ask your job candidate to do a test in real-time on the interview.

Some hiring managers prefer not to do this because candidates might feel “put on the spot” and not perform their best.

However, I can’t think of a single employer I have worked with who didn’t care equally about the candidate getting to the right answer, as they did about how they got to the right answer and what that showed about their thought process.

Doing a test or exercise together, and being able to speak with the candidate during it, is a great way to understand their logic.

Ask your job candidate scenario-based questions.

If you have a concern about how a candidate would handle a situation—whether it’s technical, about communication, or how they work with a team—ask specific, pointed questions to find out your answers. 

Requesting references is a great way to avoid this interview mistake.

It is completely acceptable to extend an offer pending reference checks so you’re able to get background information from someone who worked with this person before and can vouch for the candidate’s expertise.

Find great talent when you partner with Mondo

Looking to hire? Contact us to get started:

The Final Word On Take-Home Assignments for Hiring Managers

Hiring is a gamble. It’s normal to have a degree of trepidation about extending an offer to someone without a guarantee that they’ll be able to perform at the level you expect. But the best way to see if someone can do the job is to trust your gut and give them the chance to prove you right. 

Mondo Matches Great Talent With Great Companies

With an expansive, connected network of the top IT, Tech, Creative, and Digital Marketing professionals and a proprietary process,  Mondo  can match you with the hard-to-find, specialized talent you need.

  • Contact Mondo today for all your hiring needs
  • Download our 2023 Salary Guide  for detailed salary breakdowns for roles & jobs across the technology, creative & digital marketing industries
2023 Salary Guide: Tech, Creative & Digital Marketing

By Sarah Magazzo

Digital Marketing Manager for Mondo National Staffing Agency

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A take-home assignment (take-home or takehome) is a coding task given to technical candidates to complete on their own time. Candidates are typically given a day to several days to complete a take-home.

​ controversy ​ Take-homes are controversial. While there are many pros for the companies assigning them, they are less valuable in terms of the candidate experience. Nonetheless, they do have some advantages for candidates.

Benefits of Take-homes

​ candidate ​ Take-homes remove a lot of the stress associated with onsite challenges. Candidates get to use their own tools and work in the style they would if they were on the job. They can review and iterate on their work, take time away to think or rest, and rewrite. One senior engineer put it this way: “Most employees ‘take home’ their work if you think about it. You get work, you go away and think, you do it, you sleep, you come back and review it. That’s how our jobs work.”

For companies, take-homes have arguably the lowest false negative rate of any interview format—“the truest signal,” as Scott Woody, former Director of Engineering at Dropbox, put it to Holloway. A few factors account for this:

Take-homes give the candidate enough time to do the work in an environment that they’re comfortable with, so you eliminate the noise of a whiteboard interview .

It’s very hard to hide weaknesses in coding ability in a take-home, and follow-up conversations can tell you almost everything you need to know about how a candidate thinks through problems.

Follow-ups also allow you to weed out and correct for any negative signal or false signal—for example, if a candidate cheats, talking through their work will help you figure that out.

Follow-ups are an important part of the take-home evaluation; in this respect, take-homes are the first step of a larger conversation. A good take-home will mimic assignments the candidate might reasonably be asked to do on the job and will give you practical signal on their abilities, creativity, and style.

Here’s how a sample assignment might progress. Let’s say the take-home is something like “Build a simple web-based calculator app” or “Build an AI version of Tetris.” When the candidate returns, you might read the code and interrogate it together, bringing the initial asynchronous assessment into a synchronous evaluation:

You ask the candidate to critique their work.

You may then ask them what they would do given another 20 hours; or say, “How would you invest 10 more hours on this?” Questions like “What feature would you remove?” and “What feature would you add?” will further refine your understanding of their work.

An additional useful question is, “What shortcuts did you take, and why did you think that was the right shortcut?”

Downsides of Take-homes

​ caution ​ The major downside of take-homes is the time commitment they require. Because the market is so competitive, asking a strong candidate to give up their weekend for a take-home can lead them to drop out of your process. Senior candidates may feel that being asked to do a take-home is a waste of their time. For these reasons, take-homes usually make sense further along in the funnel . They require a lot of engineering time and investment from interviewers and candidates, so they aren’t ideal for screening. Some companies opt to pay candidates for the time they spend on these assignments, but this doesn’t always make a difference. A senior manager at Dropbox told us that before the company pivoted from take-homes, 20% of candidates would simply not complete them. Less-competitive candidates were more likely to complete the assignment, because they didn’t have competing offers. The pass-through rate was close to 10%. If you’re asking candidates to invest 15 hours, and their chance of passing through is 10%, the value asymmetry is strong.

Despite the high signal achieved, interviewers, too, spend hours of their time designing take-homes, scaffolding in multiple languages, and reviewing code, and with such a low pass-through rate, this hardly pays out.

​ danger ​ The other major con of take-homes is that they explicitly discriminate against people who have families or adverse financial situations, or who work more than one job. If these candidates are in the hiring pipeline at more than one company, they may receive multiple take-home assignments at once, making them impossible to complete, and this may cause the candidates to drop out of your process.

Take-homes also open up the possibility that a candidate may cheat by asking friends to help or collaborate. Additionally, with a take-home, you’re asking candidates to work in a vacuum, which doesn’t match to most work environments, where you’re hopefully able to ask questions and get feedback as you progress.

​ caution ​ Take-homes are difficult to timebox and thus difficult to assess fairly. If candidates have been given 48 hours to turn in an assignment, you might be comparing candidates who spent 40 hours with those who spent only 2.

One way to avoid this false signal is to pay people an hourly rate for the assignment; but candidates can lie, either saying they worked more hours so as to receive the pay or fewer hours because they want to look impressive.

There are situations in which the pros of take-homes outweigh the cons. Smaller companies may find it easier to assign take-homes than to expend the time and resource investment in a longer pipeline, where multiple interviews would be needed to get the same signal. Younger engineers trying to break into the industry may prefer take-homes because they provide a chance to demonstrate skills they haven’t yet had a chance to prove on the market. If there’s a candidate you haven’t gotten clear signal from yet, adding a take-home to their pipeline will usually tell you one way or another whether the bet will pay off. Scott Woody, former Director of Engineering at Dropbox, told us that people who tend to shine on take-homes have nontraditional backgrounds: “They’re hackers, or they never took CS in college, and they’d fail out of our normal process. But we can see they’ve been doing all this practical work on the side, so let’s give them this practical thing and they’re going to build something singular.”

Take-home Tips

Using a tool like Takehome.io can help with timeboxing take-homes. It might seem like the option of timeboxing would help solve a lot of the cons of this format, but many engineers hold the opinion that time limits introduce further artificiality that compromises what could otherwise be a clear signal. There are tradeoffs any way you approach it.

If you do choose to give take-homes, it’s important to be clear with the candidate that the results will only be used for evaluation and not to produce work for the company. You might also provide an upper bound on the amount of time a candidate should spend on the take-home. When sending candidates the assignment, it’s important to let them know what it is that you will be evaluating—the code? the creativity? the speed? This will help ensure that they don’t waste time on something that won’t translate as much to the assessment and the eventual job. You likely also will want to avoid noting things as nice-to-haves unless they are truly necessary for the assessment.

One idea worth noting to help make the candidate experience better is to replace the take-home with a project that is done in the office during the onsite. Such a project still requires a logistical burden, but has the benefit of feeling like a symmetric exchange of time, particularly if it replaces multiple interview questions. The goal is to mimic the benefits the take-home has for candidates—let them work alone.

​ candidate ​ Understanding the reasons why a company might choose a take-home problem can help candidates prepare. This guide from Jane Phillips has a host of practical suggestions for tackling take-home coding challenges , along with an FAQ on common scenarios, like needing more time or what to do if you’re not familiar with a language or framework in the take-home problem.

Prior Work Assessment

Some companies choose to ask candidates for past work samples rather than asking them to write code (though you can do both). The nice thing about this approach is that it allows you to see something that the candidate actually did in a real-world setting. However, it can be difficult for many candidates to provide this kind of work sample if they don’t have an open-source presence, and evaluating these work samples may take more time and require a great deal of interviewer effort to evaluate. Prior work assessments can be:

Synchronous. The candidate walks the interviewer through a completed project or portfolio.

Asynchronous. The candidate sends work to the interviewer for them to review, and/or the interviewer reviews the candidate’s open-source projects (likely on GitHub).

The Essential Guide to Take-home Coding Challenges

by Jane Philipps

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Introduction

Hi, I’m Jane. I wrote this guide because I want to help others with non-traditional backgrounds succeed on take-home coding challenges. Please read it, take notes, apply the material, and let me know about your results. You can reach me via email at [email protected] .

This guide is intended for anyone who has received a take-home coding challenge as part of the technical interview process and wants to attack it in the best way. This Essential Guide is a distilled version of a longer Ultimate Guide to Take-home Coding Challenges , which goes into much more detail and walks through an example challenge from start to finish.

So, if you’ve just received a challenge and are anxious to get started, start here, and then check out the full guide when you want to learn the material more deeply. Good luck!

Mistakes to avoid making when working on a take-home coding challenge

There are several mistakes you can make with take-home challenges. Some of these are small mistakes that are easily correctable, while others will leave you frustrated and unable to finish your assignment. I want to address these mistakes first, so when you’re given a take-home challenge, you know exactly what not to do.

Here are four mistakes you can make:

1. Time management and scope creep

2. Trying to learn too many new things at once

3. Making too many assumptions

4. Starting to code right away

Let’s look at each one in detail.

Time estimation is one of the hardest problems in programming, and even experienced engineers struggle with it. This plays into take-home challenges in a couple of ways.

First, some challenges come with “estimated time.” I usually ignore these, as they are rarely based in reality. Second, some challenges are open-ended. Many people, especially newer developers, will want to add tons of features because they think it will be impressive. Actually, it’s more impressive if you keep the scope relatively narrow, but finish everything you set out to do. In this situation, it’s better to do one thing really well than to do a million things poorly.

A good question would be: what counts as “going above and beyond” versus what counts as “scope creep?” My rule of thumb would be if your idea accomplishes or improves on the requirements of the assignment, that is likely a good idea, but if it seems tangentially related or “just cool,” it’s probably scope creep. But, as I describe later, always make it work first.

While a take-home coding challenge can be an excellent opportunity for learning, it is possible to take on too much learning. If you’re given a challenge where you must use a specific language or framework, but you’re not familiar with it, don’t add additional complexity by setting out to learn something new on top of that. For example, if you are using a new backend framework for a full stack app, stick to a frontend framework that you’re already comfortable with.

If your challenge is language/framework agnostic, but you’ve been itching to try out some new technology, pick JUST ONE to experiment with. Between reading the docs, getting your challenge properly set up, and getting used to any new syntax, you will have your hands full. Even learning one thing will eat up a lot of your time, so I would highly suggest limiting yourself to one new piece of technology per challenge.

As a developer, if you make too many assumptions, you are bound to build an application where the requirements are off, or the user experience is bad. When given a set of requirements for a take-home challenge, ALWAYS take the time to review the requirements and make sure you fully understand them. And, if you have any questions at all, always ask.

First, this shows that you are willing to ask for help when you don’t quite understand something, an important trait for a developer to demonstrate. Second, many companies will intentionally give you product requirements that are vague or not fully fleshed out in order to see how you react in these situations. They are actually testing your ability to make sense of requirements that may have gaps in them.

So, when in doubt, ask questions. Asking questions is also a signal that you are engaged and interested in the challenge.

One last mistake you can make is to jump in and start coding right away. I guarantee if you do this, you will regret it. Why? Two reasons:

Without proper planning, your code will suffer

Without first getting organized and making sure you fully understand ALL of the technical requirements, you may find yourself missing edge cases or rewriting parts of the functionality. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but you will actually SAVE yourself time if you plan ahead.

You will spin your wheels trying to get your app set up properly

Especially for newer developers, initial app setup can be one of the hardest parts of a take-home coding challenge. It’s not something you do every day, so it often takes some research and reading documentation to get reacquainted with the process and ensure you’re going about it in the best way.

So, there you have it — a summary of mistakes to avoid making. You’ll find that a lot of these are also applicable to your day to day work as a developer. In the next section, we’ll dive into further detail on how to get organized before you write a single line of code.

Get organized: how to plan before you write a line of code

Now it’s time to get to work! But, it’s NOT time to write any code YET.

Because, as you’ll see, a lot of the work actually happens before you write a single line of code. This may seem counterintuitive, but again — the more time you spend up front planning, the less time you will spend writing code.

So, now you have your coding challenge in hand and you are ready to get started with the planning process. Here are my six suggested steps:

1. Understand the requirements and ask any questions

2. Identify technical decisions you need to make

3. Technical design & whiteboarding

4. Test plan

5. App setup plan

6. Organize your tasks

First, you need to make sure you completely, absolutely, 100% understand the requirements of the project. If any part of the requirements are unclear, it is up to you to reach out to your contact and ask questions.

Sometimes companies will purposefully make their requirements vague, in order to see how you approach the problem. In these cases, it is always best to ask questions as it shows you are thinking about the problem and not just making assumptions and building an app to a vague spec.

Your next step will be to identify the technical decisions that you need to make. Making a list of all of your technical decisions up front and thinking about them before you’re in the middle of building your app will help you immensely. Not only will it cut down on time figuring things out later, but it will allow you to make big picture decisions up front, as opposed to trying to focus on both the big picture and the small details at the same time.

Now it’s time to plan out the rest of your app. For anything that you need to draw out, now is the perfect time to do that. Thinking through these decisions at the start serves two purposes:

  • You’ll be able to reference these drawings and your original plan while you’re building your app. Then if you get stuck at any point, you can always come back to your notes.
  • Later, when you are having a discussion with an engineer about your coding challenge, you can use these notes as a reference when they ask you why you made certain design or architecture decisions.

Once you’ve thought through and answered some of the bigger design and architecture questions for your challenge, the next step is research. If you’re planning to use a new technology or something you’re a bit rusty with, use this time to search for documentation and other resources.

Another very important step to take before writing a line of code is developing a test plan. Although you won’t get peer feedback on this test plan, it will help you look at the challenge from a different angle, making sure you’re meeting all of the requirements. By thinking through and writing out a test plan before you start coding, you are able to brainstorm possible edge cases that you should account for in your code and you will use this as a basis for testing your app later.

If you’re starting an app from scratch, figure out if there are any generators you can use to make your app setup easier and faster. Application setup is one of the hardest parts of take-home coding challenges, because it’s something that developers do rather infrequently. Best practices are always changing, so it’s easy to forget how to do. Also, when setting up an app with a specific combination of technologies for the first time, it can be challenging to get everything configured and working together properly.

If you are not using a generator, reading documentation and finding working examples are the two most important steps you can take. Being able to play with a working example and compare it to your own app will help you if you get stuck.

The last step before you start coding is to break down and organize your tasks. Breaking down your tasks is essential because it will help you stay on track as you’re working on your challenge, and it will give you a game plan for execution. Note that you shouldn’t be a perfectionist here, because there will always be unexpected bumps in the road.

Here is an example task list for a classic Tic Tac Toe app:

Some of these tasks can be broken down even further into smaller steps. For example, in order to implement the Tic Tac Toe gameplay with Javascript, here are some smaller tasks:

3. Writing tests: just do it!

Testing can be overwhelming, because there are so many different types of tests: acceptance tests, integration tests, and unit tests, not to mention test driven development vs. ad hoc testing.

Why should you include tests in your take-home coding challenge? It’s simple: your tests will make your submission shine.

First, adding tests shows that you know or are willing to learn another technology/framework. It also demonstrates that you take ownership of what you’re building, because you are taking responsibility to make sure it works. Testing also shows that you’ve considered edge cases, which many newer engineers often overlook.

Many companies take tests very seriously. Some will not tell you that they expect tests for your coding challenge, but will automatically reject you if you leave them out. Therefore, my recommendation is to write tests no matter what when given a take-home challenge. Not only will it make you a better developer, but for companies that were not expecting tests, you will stand out even more!

How do you go about writing a tests? First, create a plan. Here’s my 80/20 suggestion for how to come up with the right test cases:

1. Test the happy path

For the classic Tic Tac Toe example, the happy path is starting with an empty board and playing a game until X wins.

2. Think about variations on the happy path

A variation on the happy path would be if O wins, or if there is a tie game.

3. Think of edge cases

An edge case would be if a player tries to play a move in the same square more than once.

4. Test anything that is complex

The algorithm to find the winner is the most complex part of this example.

Here’s a sample test plan:

So, now it’s your turn. Think about your app and, as a baseline, think of 5–10 tests that you can write.

4. Make it work, then make it pretty, then make it fast

The title of this section sums it up pretty well, but when you’re working on building out your challenge, you should follow these 3 steps IN THIS ORDER:

1. Make it work

2. Make it pretty

3. Make it fast

When you’re given a take-home coding challenge, no matter what you do, the most crucial part of the challenge is to make it work. If you submit an app that has a nice UI, that will not matter if your app does not work or meet all of the requirements. Because building features to spec is a key aspect of your future job as a developer, you first and foremost need to focus on the functionality of your app and prioritize that above all else.

This is also key if you are low on or run out of time. Coding challenges can be a lot of work, especially if you want to go above and beyond to ensure that you make it to the next interview round. But, I can guarantee that you will not make it to the next round if your app doesn’t function properly or is missing some key components.

So, if you’re building a front-end app, this means focusing on making it work first, and styling/UI last. If you are building a back-end or full-stack app, focus on making it work before trying to refactor your code into the most elegant solution, and only then worry about optimization.

Even if you end up without any time to go back and refactor your code or style your UI, having a working app to present is more important. You can always talk to the interviewer about how you would improve your app, and refactoring some of your code might even be part of the next round of interviewing.

Make it pretty has two interpretations here. One is making the code pretty, and the other is making the UI pretty. Making the code pretty can be done in several ways. First, ensure indentation is consistent and your code is readable. Second, if you got something to work in a quick, hacky way, think about how you can refactor it to be a more elegant solution without overcomplicating it.

If you’re doing a front-end or full-stack challenge, you can also make the UI pretty as part of this step. Whether you use a library or write your own custom styles for your app, making the UI look good will show your interviewer that you’re taking the user experience into consideration when building a feature.

For some more front-end-focused challenges, you’ll be given a specific mockup to match. In these cases, making sure you’re detail oriented down to the last pixel is incredibly important. Part of your role may involve translating mockups from designers into user interfaces, so companies want to get a sense of how you approach those types of tasks.

Once you’ve made your app work, made it pretty (in the code, UI, or both), it may be time to make it fast! This is where understanding performance and BigO notation comes in handy.

You should take a look at your code and see if there are any areas where increasing the scale might be an issue. For example, are you using a double for loop somewhere? What if the arrays you’re looping over become super long?

If you think about these kinds of edge cases, you can then come up with plan to improve your code. Taking something that would have been running O(n) and making it O(1) will show that you’re thinking about performance when you’re building things.

How to make your code shine

When given a take-home coding challenge, many people think about how to build an app that works, but stop there. In this section, I’ll go over things an engineer reviewing your code will look for, so you can take your challenge to the next level and make your code shine.

When an engineer is reviewing your code, they will look for several different things. They will likely try to run your app to play around with it and see it working. After that, they will delve into the actual code, looking to see how you organized your app architecture and reading code in individual files.

There are several things you can do to make your code stand out. You want your code to be:

  • Easy to follow
  • Well organized
  • Clean (properly indented, free of syntax errors and unnecessary whitespace)

These are the basics that don’t take much effort outside of mindfulness to get right. Now let’s talk about three of the more involved code style considerations:

1. How to name things

2. How to use comments effectively

3. How to format your code as you write it

Naming is one of the hardest problems in programming. One of the keys to naming things is to make sure you’re naming them in a way that another developer who is unfamiliar with the code can easily jump in and understand.

For functions, think about what exactly the function is doing. Is the function checking whether there is a winner on a row of a Tic Tac Toe board? Then a great name would be checkRow . Is your function handling a click on a square of the Tic Tac Toe board? Then a great name would be handleClick .

One quick tip: if you find yourself losing your flow because you keep stopping to think of the perfect name, split your process into two steps. First, write working code with any names (like foo , bar , and baz ). Then take a second pass through to improve them.

Adding comments can be a great way to capture what you were thinking at the time you wrote a specific piece of code. This can be useful to you, or anyone else who comes across your code in the future and needs to understand it, tweak it, or rewrite it.

Think of comments as adding clarity to your code. But, pay attention, because there is such a thing as too many comments.

Here is where you most likely do not need comments:

  • When you declare a variable
  • When you declare a function

Don’t do this:

The variable or function name should be enough to explain exactly what it does. If you need a comment to explain it, then you need to give it a better name!

Here are some examples of where comments can be useful:

  • Technically tricky lines of code

First, let’s talk about HTML. Markup seems pretty self-explanatory, right? So, why would you need comments? Let’s say you have a really long HTML file with A LOT of <d iv>s. Comments can be a good way to signal which </div> tags close which sections.

In CSS, comments are a good way to divide up your styles if you have a lot of styles in one file. This way, when you come back to the code later and want to make a change, it’s easier to find the styles for that one section you need to update.

Comments in CSS are also very useful whenever you are hard-coding any math or adding an arbitrary number of pixels as margin, padding, and so on. Comments can be useful to explain things like this that are specific to your application.

One of the best uses for comments is when you’ve written code that is technically difficult or just not intuitive. You should always strive for simple, understandable code as much as possible. However, sometimes you will have confusing code — maybe you’ve chained a bunch of methods together or are using a complex regular expression — and it would help to explain what is happening in a comment.

You are almost done learning how to make your code shine! Just one more step.

I’m a STICKLER about formatting when it comes to code. And, it’s not just me. You’ll find that the best engineers also care about well-formatted, clean code. Why? First, it’s much easier to read! Coding can be really challenging, so when code is easier to read, it makes our jobs as developers that much easier. Also, writing clean code sends a message to your interviewers that you take pride in the craft of writing code, and for many teams, this is a big deal.

So, how do you make sure the code style sticklers will approve of your code? There are a few simple tricks you can use as you’re working through your coding challenge to ensure the end result comes out clean and you don’t have to spend time at the end reformatting everything.

  • Choose tabs or spaces and be consistent across your entire application (i.e. no 2 spaces in some files, 4 spaces in others)
  • Indent your code properly as you go so that it stays readable and isn’t all over the place
  • Get rid of trailing whitespace! Whitespace can sometimes wreck havoc, so it’s best to just get rid of it as you write your code.
  • Keep your syntax consistent throughout your entire app. If you’re using a linter, this will be easier, but requires setting one up. If you don’t have time to set one up, pay attention. Don’t use ES5 in some places in your app and ES6 in others. Pick one and stick with it!
  • Remove unnecessary logging and debug statements when you’re done using them! Unless logging is part of your application, you’ll want to remove any temporary statements you were using while building your app.
  • Always leave a newline at the end of every file

That’s it! It’s pretty simple, and once you’re in the habit of doing this, not only will your code be easier for you to read, but it will also be easier for others to read and maintain. Many new developers haven’t been exposed to very much code maintenance, but trust me, when you have to clean up code someone else has written, you will be more thankful if it was neatly organized to start. Pay it forward!

Here’s an example of badly formatted code:

Here’s an example of the same code, but cleanly formatted and MUCH more readable:

How to take your challenge to the next level

Here are 3 ideas for how you can take your coding challenge to the next level:

2. UI/UX design (for front-end or full-stack challenges)

3. Data validation and error handling

Not all coding challenges come with bonuses, but if yours does and your goal is to get a job offer, do them! Why? It’s pretty simple. If you go above and beyond in your coding challenge, it will show that you will go above and beyond once you’re hired at this company. Completing bonus requirements is a high competence trigger for the interviewer.

Some front-end or full-stack challenges will mention UI/UX design as a bonus, but if they don’t, putting in some effort to make the UI look nice and be easy to use will go a long way. You can either go the route of adding your own custom CSS or plugging in a library or two to help make your styling even more painless. If you use a library, just make sure that you understand how it works enough to explain how you’ve used it.

Data validation and error handling are key components in production apps. Adding either one of these (or both!) to your challenge will help make it stand out. Many developers who are new to coding and haven’t worked in a production codebase before don’t have a ton of exposure to either of these, so if you add error handling for edge cases it will show that you thought through a lot of different situations.

How to write an awesome README

You may be done writing code, but you’re not done writing yet — it’s time to write your README.

Why you should include a README

READMEs are incredibly important, both for professional developers and for job seekers working on take-home challenges. Including a README shows that you care about documentation.

Documentation helps spread knowledge across teams and serves as a supplement to your code. Having documentation for your take-home challenge ensures that anyone else (or future you) can jump into your code with a clear understanding of what you’ve built without any guessing games.

Your README is also the KEY to making sure that everyone reviewing your challenge has the most painless experience possible. Finally, your README is a way of proving to your reviewer that you successfully met the requirements of the challenge.

How to write your README

Writing a great README is not hard, and you will stand out a great deal from the other applicants with one. Here are the five sections I’d recommend you include:

1. Installation instructions

2. Discussion of technologies used

3. A section demonstrating that you met the requirements

4. If there are bonuses, a section demonstrating that you met them

5. For algorithms and data structures, time and space complexity

When writing your README, don’t make any assumptions. Write out all of the steps to run your app locally and test them yourself. This includes cloning the repo from Github, running installation commands, and starting up a server. Also, make sure to include versions of software that you are using. This will ensure that the developer reviewing your code has a seamless experience setting up and running your app, and if they do happen to run into any trouble due to versioning, they will have all of the information they need right there in the README.

This section is as simple as it sounds — make a list of all of the technologies you used including frameworks and libraries. If you had to find a library for a specific piece of functionality in your take-home challenge, mention it here and include a link to the docs.

Usually your take-home challenge will come with some sort of requirements spec, so make sure to include a section in your README where you describe the requirements and how you met them. In some cases, you can take the product spec you were given and write a short explanation of how you met each requirement in a list. In other cases, you can simply include a short paragraph explaining how you satisfied the requirements. It’s totally up to you how you do it, just make sure you include it.

Similar to the requirements section above, you’ll want to highlight any bonuses you completed while working on the take-home challenge. If you attempted a bonus, but couldn’t quite get something to work, then the README is also a good place to address that. You can discuss the approach or approaches you tried and what worked or didn’t work.

If you had to write any algorithms or data structures as part of your take-home challenge, it’s helpful to include the space-time complexity of your final algorithm. This can be done in Big O notation.

One final word of advice: write your README in markdown so it looks nice! This will demonstrate that you know (or are willing to learn) another language that will come in handy as a full-time developer.

Here is an example README for a Tic Tac Toe app:

Final steps before you hit send

Now that you’ve written your README, you’re almost ready to hit send! Before you do that, take the time to double check all of your work using the following checklist:

  • Re-read the take-home challenge instructions to make sure you didn’t miss any requirements
  • Review your app’s code to ensure that it shines
  • Run your app’s automated tests and make sure they are all passing
  • Test your app manually and make sure everything is working properly
  • Test your app installation instructions from your README
  • Start an email draft and copy your README into it for convenience
  • If requested, make sure to attach a zip file of your code
  • Write an email to your contact at the company

Your email can be short and sweet — I always like to highlight something I enjoyed about the challenge or something I learned. Here’s an example:

Note that you should only mention interviewing with other companies or offer deadlines if either is actually the case. I feel you should be honest and candid about your situation and maintain leverage for a potential future compensation negotiation at the same time.

Now, finally, hit send!

I hope this Essential Guide was helpful and you learned something that you can apply to a take-home challenge or in your day-to-day work. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can reach me at [email protected] .

Also, if you enjoyed this guide and want to learn more, feel free to sign up for my email list:

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5 Examples of Take-Home Tasks for Different Roles

Juste Semetaite

The take-home tasks are much like marmite, coriander, or Hawaiian pizza. Your candidates will either love it or hate it.

The ‘love it’ camp likely welcomes the opportunity to showcase their skills and appreciate the time to think it through versus answering questions on the spot in an interview.

However, the ‘hate it’ group sees it as doing work for free, might already have portfolios of work that give a much fairer picture of their experience level, and resent the infringement on their personal time (regardless of how this might be their dream job).

What we can learn from this dichotomy is that while a take-home assignment is not right for every role, it’s still worth it for some.

In this article, we discuss and examine 5 good examples of take-home tasks that your candidates will (hopefully) love.

TL;DR – Key Takeaways

A take-home assignment is an important part of the interview process that focuses on candidates crafting and completing real-world tasks .

Incorporating a take-home assignment will give your organization better insight and skill observation over candidates.

However, job seekers may see tests as time-consuming, exploitative, or manipulative.

The perfect take-home assignment should be structured around providing the candidate with clarity about the role, respecting their time, and ensuring consistent testing criteria.

You can use take-home assignments for a wide range of roles, from designers to coders and even managers.

Toggl Hire just introduced Homework tasks to the Assessment Library! It’s never been easier to raise the quality of your hires with reliable proof of competence.

building a take-home task vs using a template

What are take-home tasks?

A take-home assignment is given to candidates during the interview process to complete in their own time and shows the hiring manager how the job seeker is able to complete a task.

These assignments generally consist of coding tests for developers , presentations for upper-level management, and campaigns for marketers. And they are given to candidates after the first interview round — the success will determine if the candidate makes it to the second round.

5 Types of Homework Assignments for a Skills-First Hiring Process

Pros and cons of a take-home assignment

Obviously, there are pros and cons to using a take-home assignment, right?

Of course! So let’s go over the big ones.

• Skill observation — It allows the hiring company to understand the candidate’s skills in action and their thought process.

• Insight — The take-home interview assignment will allow the candidate to have a better understanding of the position, break any key assumptions, and what the company expects of them.

• Supplemental information — If done early in the interview process, an interview assignment allows the candidate’s skills to do the talking as opposed to the hiring manager only relying on the resume.

• Less pressure — Because a Q&A interview can be a pressure cooker, the take-home assignment makes the interviewing candidate feel more at ease.

• Time-consuming — A hiring team may claim the assignment will only take several hours to prepare and complete, but any interview assignment over more than an hour is cutting into the candidate’s personal time and current job.

• Ethical concerns and lost earnings — Asking a candidate to complete an unpaid work assignment can be seen as unethical and equivalent to unpaid labor. Some companies may even go so far as to steal the ideas of the candidate, use them, and not give credit or compensate the candidate.

• Limited personal evaluation — While the interview take-home assignment can assess a candidate’s skill set, it may not capture important aspects such as personality and behavior.

How to structure a take-home task?

Setting up a take-home assignment can be tricky; it’s crucial for hiring managers to approach their creation with careful thought and attention.

Your hiring team will need to consider all of the following:

Easily evaluate take-home tasks in one place

What are the common mistakes?

In this section, we’ll explore common blunders to steer clear of when designing and implementing a take-home assignment during the interview process, ensuring fairness and an effective evaluation process that respects candidates’ time and effort.

• Appropriate Task Alignment — Avoid assigning tasks that aren’t directly relevant to the role.

• Reasonable Task Length — Create a take-home assignment that can be completed within a reasonable timeframe.

• Providing Sufficient Context — Avoid requesting candidates to answer or solve company-specific problems without providing adequate information.

• Ethical Treatment of Work Requests — Refrain from asking candidates to produce work for free that the company may later exploit, such as writing a blog post for publication.

• Timely Introduction of Tasks — Including a take-home assignment as an early screening requirement can discourage candidates. Do this after their first interview.

• Constructive Feedback — Don’t miss the opportunity to provide candidates with constructive feedback on their completed tasks.

• Balancing Mandatory and Optional Tasks — Avoid making the take-home assignment mandatory for all applicants, as circumstances may prevent some candidates from completing it.

• Conduct post-assignment interviews — Once you have received a few tasks back from candidates, we highly recommend that you schedule a take-home assignment interview to better understand any pain points the job seeker may have had.

5 Thorough examples of take-home assignments

Now that you better understand the how , the when , and the why of take-home assignments, we’ll show you five examples.

The example take-home assignments will cover tasks for:

  • Developer – fixing a broken site
  • Product manager – redesigning a feature
  • Marketing lead – creating a marketing campaign
  • Designer – redesigning the onboarding flow
  • Customer success executive – running a mock QBR

Example #1: Take-home task for a Developer role

This challenge is geared towards a mid-level developer who can identify and fix errors and optimize the code of an e-commerce website. The goal here is to see how well the candidates understand debugging techniques, approach problem-solving, and how they will communicate with the rest of their team.

Top tips to enlarge those brains

Task: Fixing a Broken E-commerce Site

Introduction

Your mission is to debug the broken e-commerce site, fix errors, and ensure it runs smoothly. Customers are unable to place orders due to the significant increase in errors.

Requirements

  • Identify and fix all of the errors on the site.
  • Ensure that customers can place orders without any problems.
  • Optimize the site to improve its performance.
  • Document your approach and explain your reasoning behind your changes.

Instructions

  • Clone the repository from the following Github URL: https://github.com/debugging-challenge/e-commerce-site.git .
  • Install all the dependencies by running npm install .
  • Start the development server by running npm start .
  • Debug and fix all errors.
  • Document your approach and explain your reasoning in a README file.

Your submission will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Identification and fixing of all errors
  • Site optimization
  • Completeness of documentation and reasoning
  • Code cleanliness and adherence to best practices
  • Clarity and organization of documentation
  • Submit your code as a ZIP file.
  • Include the README file that explains your approach and reasoning.
  • Send the ZIP file to the hiring manager by email.

Example #2: Challenge for a Product Manager

Our next example focuses on testing Product Manager candidates on how they approach problem-solving, communicate with customers, and conduct user research while implementing open-ended questions.

In a sense, how well they’ll actually do their jobs in a product management role. This assignment is bound to produce better product management interviews for your organization.

Task: Redesigning Filma’s Collaboration Features

You are the Product Manager for collaboration features at Filma, a leading collaborative design platform. Recent feedback from customers has shown that they are not happy with how collaboration features work on the site. Your mission in this product management task is to redesign the collaboration features to better meet customer needs and preferences.

  • Review the problem statement and develop a list of open-ended questions to better understand the issue.
  • Conduct user research to validate assumptions and identify pain points and user needs.
  • Develop a new design for collaboration features.
  • Prioritize features and functionality based on customer needs and business goals.
  • Outline the implementation plan.
  • Document your approach and explain your reasoning.
  • Review the problem statement and develop a list of open-ended questions to better understand the issue and customer needs.
  • Conduct (mock) user research to validate assumptions and identify pain points and user needs. Schedule a call with a team member to role-play a customer interview. Include data points such as user feedback, user behaviour, and competitor analysis in your research.
  • Develop a new design for collaboration features. Identify the key features and functionality of the new design, and prioritize them based on customer needs and business goals.
  • Outline the implementation plan. Include a timeline, resources required, and technical feasibility.
  • Document your approach and explain your reasoning in a presentation or document.
  • Quality of open-ended questions and user research.
  • Soundness of the new design and prioritization of features and functionality.
  • Clarity and feasibility of the product management implementation plan.
  • Completeness of documentation and reasoning.
  • Clarity and organization of presentation or document.
  • Submit your open-ended questions, presentation, or document as a PDF or PowerPoint file.
  • Send the file to the hiring manager by email.

Example #3: Testing Marketing Managers

Let’s now explore an exciting Marketing challenge that aims to find a candidate who can skillfully design an innovative user acquisition growth loop. This task involves leveraging valuable market research insights to craft a robust strategy that showcases a deep understanding of growth concepts.

Task: Designing a User Acquisition Growth Loop

You are the Marketing Lead at a Product-Led Growth (PLG) company that provides a collaboration tool for remote teams. Your team has conducted market research to identify target customer segments. Your mission is to design a new user acquisition growth loop based on the insights gained.

  • Review the market research insights provided by your team.
  • Design a new user acquisition growth loop, with a structured approach, based on the insights gained.
  • Identify metrics to measure the effectiveness of the growth loop.
  • Review the market research insights provided by your team. Use the insights to identify areas where a new user acquisition growth loop can be designed.
  • Design a new user acquisition growth loop based on the insights gained. The growth loop should identify key stages, such as awareness, interest, and activation, and prioritize them based on customer needs and business goals.
  • Identify metrics to measure the effectiveness of the growth loop. The metrics should be tied to the key stages of the growth loop and should be used to track progress and optimize the loop over time.
  • Soundness of the new user acquisition growth loop and prioritization of key stages
  • Creativity and effectiveness of the growth loop design
  • Identification and feasibility of metrics to measure the effectiveness of the growth loop
  • Clarity and organization of presentation or document
  • Submit your presentation or document as a PDF or PowerPoint file.

How to hire a marketing person: 8 skills that make top marketers

Example #4: Take-home test for Designers

This challenge is centered around an intriguing Product Design assessment designed to narrow down a candidate who excels in analyzing user recording sessions and crafting an improved onboarding flow design.

Task: Redesigning the Onboarding Flow Introduction

You are a Product Designer at a web-based Product-Led Growth (PLG) company that provides a collaboration tool for remote teams. Your team has recorded user sessions for the past 3 months to help identify areas of improvement for the onboarding flow. Your mission is to redesign the onboarding flow to improve user engagement and activation based on the insights gathered.

  • Analyze the user recording sessions to identify user needs and preferences.
  • Develop a new design for the onboarding flow.
  • Prioritize design features based on user needs and business goals.
  • Ensure that the design aligns with the company’s minimalist, intuitive design philosophy.
  • Analyze the user recording sessions to identify user needs and preferences. Use the insights gathered to identify areas for improvement in the onboarding flow.
  • Develop a new design for the onboarding flow. Identify the key stages of the flow, and prioritize them based on user needs and business goals. Ensure that the design aligns with the company’s minimalist, intuitive design philosophy.
  • Prioritize design features based on user needs and business goals. Identify the most important design features that will enhance user engagement and activation.
  • Quality of analysis of user recording sessions and identification of user needs and preferences
  • The soundness of the new onboarding flow design and prioritization of key stages
  • Alignment with the company’s minimalist, intuitive design philosophy
  • Creativity and effectiveness of the prioritized design features

How to Hire a Product Designer for Your Startup?

Example #5: Testing Customer Succes

Our final challenge example focuses on a Customer Success assignment. The perfect candidate will showcase their expertise in defining success metrics for a simulated account, devising impactful tactics to drive feature adoption and enhance metrics, and effectively presenting their approach and results in a mock Quarterly Business Review (QBR) presentation.

Task: Driving Feature Adoption and Improving Metrics

You are a Customer Success Manager at a PLG company that provides a project management tool for remote teams. Your mission is to work with a mock account to define success metrics, develop tactics to drive feature adoption and improve metrics for Q2, culminating in a mock QBR presentation.

  • Define success metrics for the mock account.
  • Develop tactics to drive feature adoption and improve metrics.
  • Document your approach and results in a mock QBR presentation.
  • Define success metrics for the mock account. Assume that the mock account is a remote team of 20 people that uses your project management tool for all their projects. Assume that they have been using the tool for 6 months, and that they have expressed interest in increasing feature adoption and improving metrics related to on-time delivery, collaboration, and budget management. Use your own assumptions to define success metrics that measure the impact of the product on their business.
  • Develop tactics to drive feature adoption and improve metrics. Use the success metrics to identify the actions needed to increase feature adoption and improve metrics, and assign responsibilities to your team. Use customer success best practices, such as regular check-ins and training sessions, to ensure that the tactics are on track and that the mock account is engaged and satisfied.
  • Document your approach and results in a mock QBR presentation. Create a deck that’s less than 10 slides, with consistent title and object placement, fonts, font colors, and different ways of visualizing insights. Use the mock QBR presentation to realign on the mock account’s goals, review their performance, present the tactics and their impact on the success metrics, and recommend the next steps to improve product performance next quarter.
  • Quality of success metrics defined for the mock account.
  • Soundness of the tactics to drive feature adoption and improve metrics.
  • Collaborative execution of the tactics with your team.
  • Clarity, organization, and persuasiveness of the mock QBR presentation.
  • Submit your mock QBR presentation as a PDF or PowerPoint file.

How to Hire A Customer Success Manager: 10 Skills to Assess

Try a Homework Assignment by Toggl Hire

So, why not try homework assignments in your hiring process? Our Homework assessments provide invaluable insights for hiring managers evaluating candidates ‘ ability to solve job-specific assignments.

Take your interview process to a new level with our ready-made take home task templates

Designed to test the hands-on skills necessary for day-to-day work, these assessments offer a glimpse into a candidate’s potential future job performance . With over 500 pre-built tasks available in Toggl Hire’s library, you can quickly implement comprehensive tests that align with your hiring needs.

Toggl Homework assessments are highly flexible, allowing for either integration with other assessments or standalone use. This means you can customize the evaluation to fit your needs. Toggl Hire’s extensive library supplies assessments for many different skills, helping you to select the best tests for evaluating candidates for any role or industry.

Juste Semetaite

Juste loves investigating through writing. A copywriter by trade, she spent the last ten years in startups, telling stories and building marketing teams. She works at Toggl Hire and writes about how businesses can recruit really great people.

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An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process

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An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process was originally published on Exponent .

An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process

Netflix is one of the most prominent tech and entertainment companies on the planet. It should be no surprise that the interview process is challenging for the best candidates.

Candidates will face several rounds of interviews, assessments, and personal evaluations while meeting with several hiring managers and potential colleagues.

How to Get a Netflix Job Referral

Getting a job at Netflix is one of the hardest-to-get positions in the techsector. Netflix software engineers, program managers, and content analysts useartistic vision, content design, marketing analytics, and cross-functionalcommunication to support and develop the company’s titular streaming s…

An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process

FAANG companies, of which Netflix is a part, are notorious for being extremely selective.

We developed this guide to make this process easier for you.

The Netflix Interview Process

An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process

Netflix is one of the largest technology and entertainment companies in the world. In fact, the “N” in FAANG , is Netflix.

So, as you can already imagine, the interview and hiring process at the company is challenging and rigorous. Like many tech interviews these days, the Netflix interview process involves several rounds.

The hiring team must make a unanimous decision if they want to hire you. Therefore, you must do your best in every single interview round, as any of them could make or break your candidacy.

The Netflix Interview Process looks like this:

  • Initial Recruiter Phone Screen
  • Technical Phone Screen
  • Round 1 of On-Site Interviews
  • Round 2 of On-Site Interviews

Initial Phone Screen

The first step you’ll take is speaking with a recruiter at the company over the phone. If you’ve sent in a job application to the company, be prepared to wait a week for a Netflix recruiter to schedule a phone interview with you.

Prior to this phone call, your recruiter will share the Netflix Core Values with you. We cannot emphasize it enough: if you want any chance of receiving a job offer from Netflix, you must closely study these core values. Netflix places significant weight on the culture fit of their candidates, much more so than other comparable tech companies.

This initial recruiter phone screening will be relatively quick, around 30 minutes or so, but the questions will focus on your previous job experience, past projects, the position you’re applying to, general behavioral questions, and why you want to work at Netflix.

Technical Screen

An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process

If the initial phone screen goes well, the company will invite you to another screen. This time, however, this time, the interview questions will be technical.

Expect the recruiter to take several days to schedule this round after you complete the initial screening.

The technical phone screens at Netflix take around 45-60 minutes and are conducted either by your hiring or engineering manager at the company.

This round will consist of technical interview questions , some more behavioral/culture questions, and a coding exercise you will need to complete within the screening.

Netflix hiring managers will sometimes offer candidates a choice between a technical screening as we just described or a take home assignment that they’ll need to finish within a few hours.

It will not make a significant difference which one you choose, so long as you ace the round. Therefore, it’s best to choose the option that you’re most confident in. For example, if you get nervous during live coding exercises, perhaps the take home assignment is the way to go.

Regardless of which you choose, remember that individual evaluating your performance during this round will either be your hiring manager or an engineering manager who will need to unanimously consent to your hiring decision if you’re to receive a job offer.

On-Site Interview Round

An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process

Finally, you’ll need to complete several on-site interviews. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Netflix conducted these on-site interviews virtually. However, CEO Reed Hastings stated he would push for a major return to the office once most employees received their vaccinations.

Therefore, it’s safe to assume Netflix on-site interviews will, once again, take place in the Netflix offices.

Netflix breaks their on-site interview round up into two main parts:

Round 1 consists of 5 individual interviews. Four of these interviews are technical rounds and will be like the technical screening completed earlier (technical questions evaluating your technical skills).

They will involve candidates completing

  • Coding exercises ,
  • Whiteboarding interview questions,
  • Data structures & algorithms ,
  • System design .

Many candidates at Netflix also report that they needed to field brain teaser questions, officially referred to as estimation interview questions . These types of interview questions were once commonplace at many Big Tech companies, but have since lost much of their popularity .

Nevertheless, you should still prepare and practice answering these questions, just in case they come up during your Netflix interview.

A member of Human Resources will conduct the final and fifth interview of Round 1 of the on-site interviews. This interview will consist entirely of behavioral and culture fit interview questions.

While it’s crucial to do well in every one of the on-site interviews, this meeting with HR is huge. Again, Netflix places a massive emphasis on the culture fit of its employees , so it is essential that you do well during this HR interview.

For example, a software engineer candidate may do well on their technical interview questions and potentially be, in virtue of their technical skills, a solid addition to an engineering team. However, perhaps they came across as a very opinionated coworker to HR. In this case, the candidate may not get the job because of the concern about not fitting in with Netflix culture.

So long as your performance in Round 1 went well, you will move onto Round 2 of the on-site interviews.

Round 2 typically involves three of so interviews conducted by a member of HR, your hiring manager, and another engineering manager. You can expect these meetings to be less technically focused (besides the interview with the engineering manager), but they are no less important. The Round 2 on-sites are even more critical to ace considering they are highly focused on culture fit and behavioral interview questions.

Hiring Decision

An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process

Once all these on-site meetings are completed, your part in the Netflix Interview process is finished.

Expect to wait 1- 2 weeks before you hear from someone at Netflix regarding your candidacy.

If Netflix does not hire you, don’t despair. The company will allow candidates to re-apply after 6 – 12 months if you so choose.

However, if everyone (specifically the hiring manager), thought that your previous experience was relevant and that you’d make a good fit within Netflix’s corporate culture, you’ll receive a call to negotiate your salary and work through any other pertinent details.

What You Need to Know Before Your Netflix Interview

An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process

So that’s the overview of the Netflix interview process. But, what should candidates keep in mind beforehand?

Netflix Hires For Teams

The Netflix hiring process is all about their teams. As a result, some interview processes at the company may differ slightly from others, depending on the position you’re interviewing for.

Netflix Rarely Hires New Grads

Unfortunately, Netflix rarely hires fresh graduates or interns for its open position. Usually, hiring managers at the company prefer candidates with at least 3 or more years of previous experience. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get a job at Netflix as a new grad, but don’t be surprised if they pass over your application.

The Culture Fit is the Make or Break

We’ve said it a couple times in this article and we’ll keep saying it: the culture fit of the candidates is THE most significant factor in who gets hired at Netflix and who doesn’t.

Before you begin the Netflix interview process, study each of the company’s core values in great detail. Reflect on previous experiences you’ve had that relate to each one. Be sure to build a Story Bank that you can come back to when you are inevitably asked behavioral interview questions .

Netflix Favors Self-Directed Candidates

The leadership style for many managers at Netflix is pretty hands-off. Hiring managers want to be certain that their candidates can act in an autonomous, self-directed fashion. This, of course, relates to culture fit at the company, but you’ll need to ensure that you show your capacity for taking initiative, making self-directed decisions, and thriving on a significant amount of personal autonomy.

Netflix Hires Using the “Keeper Test”

If you’ve looked through Netflix’s core values, you’ll notice something fascinating under the “Dream Team” section. The document makes note of the “ Keeper Test .” The idea is rather simple: if, for example, an employee on the team left the company, would their manager try to keep them? If the answer is “no.” then the employee doesn’t pass the Keeper Test.

Hiring managers at Netflix will hire candidates with this test in mind. If they don’t think that a candidate would hypothetically pass a manager’s Keeper Test, the chances of that candidate receiving a job offer are relatively slim.

Tips & Tricks to Prepare for the Netflix Interview Process

An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process

Give Your Resume a Refresh

Updating your resume is the most important thing you should do before you start the interview process.

Be sure to pay attention to the keywords, skills, and deliverables that are highlighted in the job description at Netflix and include as many as are relevant in your updated resume.

Learn more about writing a winning resume in our other articles here.

Get an Employee Referral

As we mentioned, Netflix is one of the largest tech companies on the planet. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that it’s a challenging to be invited to take part in the company’s interview process, let alone receiving a job offer.

An excellent way to get noticed is to get a referral from an employee.

You can learn how to do just that in this guide here.

Hire a Netflix Interview Coach

Practice makes perfect! The Netflix Interview Process is challenging. We can’t deny it.

And, one of the most effective ways to ensure you put your best foot forward is with the help of an Exponent interview coach .

Interview coaches can do several things for you. They’ll:

  • Help improve your resume,
  • Personalize the coaching sessions according to your professional goals & needs,
  • Conduct mock interviews & provide constructive feedback on your performance,
  • Teach you how to negotiate job offers and salaries,

Acing your Netflix Interview can be tough, especially in this economic climate. However, with an interview coach in your corner, you’ll give yourself the best chance and the best resources of doing just that.

Click Here to Get Started With an Exponent Interview Coach Today.

More Interview Prep Resources

Here at Exponent, we have dozens of different interview resources to help you breeze through your Netflix interviews:

👨‍🎓 Take one of our comprehensive interview courses

💬 Get prepared with example interview questions

📖 Read through one of our interview guides

👯‍♂️ Practice your behavioral and interviewing skills with our interview practice tool.

CLIMB

20 Carta Interview Questions and Answers

Prepare for the types of questions you are likely to be asked when interviewing for a position at Carta.

interview take home assignment reddit

Carta is a global ownership management platform that helps companies, investors, and employees manage equity and ownership. The company has a wide range of products and services, so it’s no surprise that interviewers ask a variety of questions to test a job candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities.

To help you prepare for your interview with Carta, we’ve compiled a list of sample questions and answers. These questions will give you a better understanding of the company, its products, and the job you’re applying for. With this information, you can craft thoughtful, well-informed responses that will impress your interviewer and improve your chances of getting the job.

Carta Interview Process

The interview process at Carta can vary depending on the position you are applying for. However, most positions will require a phone screen, followed by a take-home assignment. The take-home assignment is typically 4-6 hours long, and Carta expects candidates to complete it in 2-4 hours. If the abstraction doesn’t match their vision of what it should look like, candidates may be rejected.

After the take-home assignment, there is usually an onsite interview which consists of multiple rounds of interviews, including behavioral, technical, and product questions. The whole process can take 2-3 weeks to complete.

  • What do you think is the most important feature of a good ownership management platform?
  • How would you sell Carta to a potential customer that already has an equity management software they are happy with?
  • Do you have experience working in a startup environment?
  • Why do you want to work at Carta?
  • Can you tell me about a time when you had to manage multiple projects and deadlines, how did you prioritize your tasks?
  • Tell us about a time when you had to present information to people who were not familiar with it.
  • Describe a time where you found a creative way to solve a problem.
  • Have you ever worked remotely before?
  • Identify a product or service that went through many iterations and explain why you think each iteration was necessary.
  • As a senior software engineer, what type of programming languages are you proficient in?
  • If we asked your previous manager to describe you in one word, what would they say?
  • In order to be successful as a salesperson for Carta, you need to understand the needs of our customers. Give an example of a time when you successfully identified your customer’s needs.
  • We want our employees to feel comfortable sharing their opinions even if they disagree with the majority. Provide an example of a time when you did this.
  • How would you handle receiving critical feedback on a project you were working on?
  • What would you consider to be a successful implementation of Carta?
  • When implementing Carta for a company, there will be times when your client wants something customized. Explain how you would approach this situation.
  • You will occasionally come across clients who are difficult to work with. Tell us about a time when you dealt with a challenging person.
  • Implementation managers must be able to effectively communicate instructions to other team members. Give an example of a time when you did this.
  • Our developers use a wide variety of tools and technologies. Which ones are you most experienced with?
  • Software engineers must be able to anticipate problems that could occur during development. Explain how you might go about doing this.

1. What do you think is the most important feature of a good ownership management platform?

This question is your opportunity to show the interviewer that you have experience using a similar platform and can identify its most important features. You should highlight the specific features of Carta that make it unique from other ownership management platforms.

Example: “I think the most important feature of a good ownership management platform is security. I know that Carta has some of the best security protocols in the industry, which is why my previous employer used Carta for all of our equity management needs. The security features are what made me want to work here because I knew they would be able to protect my clients’ information.”

2. How would you sell Carta to a potential customer that already has an equity management software they are happy with?

This question is a great way to test your sales skills and ability to convince others of the value Carta can provide. Use examples from your previous experience selling products or services to show how you would approach this challenge.

Example: “I would first ask them what they like about their current software, then I would explain why Carta offers more features that will help them manage equity in their company. For example, if they are looking for an easier way to track employee stock options, I would tell them that Carta has a feature that allows employees to view all of their stock information online. This makes it easy for employees to see when they have vested and can sell their shares.”

3. Do you have experience working in a startup environment?

If you’re interviewing for a position at a startup, the interviewer may want to know if you have experience working in that type of environment. If you don’t have direct experience, you can talk about your ability to learn new things and adapt quickly.

Example: “I’ve never worked directly for a startup before, but I do have experience working with small businesses. In my last role, we were a smaller department within a larger company, so I had to work independently on projects and solve problems without much guidance. I’m used to adapting to change and learning new processes quickly.”

4. Why do you want to work at Carta?

This question can help an interviewer learn more about your interest in the position and company. When preparing for this interview, make sure to read through the job description thoroughly so you know what skills are most important for this role. Use these skills to explain how your own experience and qualifications match up with what Carta is looking for.

Example: “I want to work at Carta because I am passionate about helping companies grow their equity programs. In my last position as a senior analyst, I helped several startups create their equity plans. This experience has given me valuable insight into what makes a successful program. I would love to use that knowledge to help Carta continue its growth.”

5. Can you tell me about a time when you had to manage multiple projects and deadlines, how did you prioritize your tasks?

This question can help the interviewer understand how you manage your time and prioritize tasks. Use examples from previous experience to show that you are organized, detail-oriented and able to meet deadlines.

Example: “In my last role as a project manager, I had to manage multiple projects with different timelines and deliverables. I used an online task management system to keep track of all my projects and due dates so I could stay on top of everything. This helped me ensure that I was meeting all of my deadlines while also managing other aspects of my job.”

6. Tell us about a time when you had to present information to people who were not familiar with it.

This question can help an interviewer understand how you communicate with others and your ability to explain complex information in a way that is easy for people to understand.

Example: “At my previous job, I had to present quarterly reports to the board of directors. These meetings were held once per quarter, so many of the board members weren’t familiar with all of the company’s financials. In these situations, I would always make sure to include key points and take questions at the end of each presentation.”

7. Describe a time where you found a creative way to solve a problem.

This question is a great way to show your problem-solving skills and how you can use them in the workplace. When answering this question, it’s important to highlight your ability to think outside of the box and come up with unique solutions to problems.

Example: “At my previous job, I was tasked with creating an equity plan for our company that would be fair to all employees. We had just raised $10 million in funding, so we needed to create a plan that would give everyone a chance to benefit from the new money. After speaking with some of the other employees about their concerns, I came up with a solution where each employee could choose between receiving a larger sum of equity or a smaller sum with more regular payments.”

8. Have you ever worked remotely before?

This question is a great way to learn more about the company’s culture and how they manage their employees. If you have worked remotely before, ask them what kind of tools or resources they use for remote workers.

Example: “I’ve worked remotely in the past, but I prefer working in an office setting. However, I do understand that some companies are better suited for remote work than others. At my last job, we had a few remote employees who used Carta to track equity and ownership. It was nice to see how many different ways there were to use the platform.”

9. Identify a product or service that went through many iterations and explain why you think each iteration was necessary.

This question is a great way to show your problem-solving skills and ability to adapt. It also allows you to discuss the importance of iteration in product development.

Example: “I worked on a project that was developing an app for a client who wanted it to be compatible with multiple operating systems. We had to go through many iterations before we found one that would work across all platforms, but I think each iteration was necessary because it allowed us to find the right solution for our client.”

10. As a senior software engineer, what type of programming languages are you proficient in?

The interviewer may ask this question to understand your technical skills and how they relate to the job you’re applying for. Use examples of programming languages that are relevant to Carta’s business model or industry.

Example: “I am proficient in Java, C++, Python and Ruby. I have used these languages extensively throughout my career as a software engineer, and I find them useful when working with large-scale projects. For example, at my last company, I worked on a project where we needed to integrate multiple systems into one platform. Using these four programming languages allowed me to create an effective solution that met our client’s needs.”

11. If we asked your previous manager to describe you in one word, what would they say?

This question is a great way to learn more about the person you’re interviewing and how they interact with others. It’s also an opportunity for you to show your personality and sense of humor.

Example: “My previous manager would probably say I’m ‘reliable.’ I’ve always been someone who strives to be on time, complete my work in a timely manner and stay organized. This has helped me develop strong relationships with my coworkers and managers.”

12. In order to be successful as a salesperson for Carta, you need to understand the needs of our customers. Give an example of a time when you successfully identified your customer’s needs.

Salespeople need to be able to understand their customers’ needs and how they can help them. This is an important skill for any salesperson, but it’s especially important for a company like Carta that focuses on customer service.

Example: “When I was working as a sales representative at my previous job, I had the opportunity to work with a client who needed to manage equity in multiple companies. They were looking for a way to keep track of all of their ownership information without having to manually enter data into spreadsheets or databases. I listened carefully to what they needed and explained how our software could meet those needs.”

13. We want our employees to feel comfortable sharing their opinions even if they disagree with the majority. Provide an example of a time when you did this.

This question is an opportunity to show your ability to be a team player and work with others. When answering this question, think of a time when you disagreed with the majority but still managed to maintain positive relationships with your coworkers.

Example: “At my previous company, we had a weekly meeting where everyone would share their progress on projects and any challenges they were facing. One week, I was presenting a project that I was working on with two other employees. During our presentation, one employee mentioned that she thought it would be beneficial to add more images to the website. The other employee agreed, however, I felt like adding more images could distract from the content.

I decided to speak up during the meeting and explain why I didn’t think additional images were necessary. My coworkers understood my reasoning and respected my opinion. After the meeting, we discussed how we could implement some of my ideas into the design.”

14. How would you handle receiving critical feedback on a project you were working on?

When working in a team environment, you may receive feedback on your work from your manager or other members of the team. Interviewers ask this question to learn how you react to receiving constructive criticism and use it to improve your performance. In your answer, explain that you value feedback and are willing to take steps to implement changes if needed.

Example: “I understand that receiving critical feedback can be difficult, but I welcome the opportunity to learn from my mistakes and make improvements. If I ever received critical feedback at work, I would first thank the person for their honesty and willingness to help me improve. Then, I would evaluate the feedback and determine what changes I could make to improve my performance.”

15. What would you consider to be a successful implementation of Carta?

This question is an opportunity to show your knowledge of the Carta platform and how you would use it in a professional setting. When answering this question, consider what you know about the company’s current implementation of Carta and highlight any similarities between their goals and yours.

Example: “I think that a successful implementation of Carta would be one where all employees have access to the system and can easily see equity information. I also think it’s important for there to be clear communication regarding ownership changes so everyone knows who owns what percentage of the company. Finally, I think it’s essential that the company has a plan in place for when someone leaves or retires.”

16. When implementing Carta for a company, there will be times when your client wants something customized. Explain how you would approach this situation.

The interviewer may want to know how you would approach a situation where the client wants something customized. This is an important skill because it shows that you can work with clients and understand their needs.

Example: “I have experience working with clients who wanted things customized in the past, so I am familiar with the process of doing this. When approaching a client about customizing Carta, I first ask them what they are looking for. Then, I explain that there will be additional costs associated with customization. If the client still wants to move forward with the customization, I provide them with a quote and begin the project.”

17. You will occasionally come across clients who are difficult to work with. Tell us about a time when you dealt with a challenging person.

This question is a great way to see how you handle conflict. It’s important that you can remain calm and professional when working with clients who are difficult, so it’s helpful for employers to know that you have experience doing this.

Example: “I once had a client who was very demanding. They would often call me at all hours of the day asking for updates on their account. I learned that they were just nervous about the process, so I started sending them weekly reports to help ease their nerves. Eventually, they stopped calling as much because they knew I was keeping them updated.”

18. Implementation managers must be able to effectively communicate instructions to other team members. Give an example of a time when you did this.

An effective implementation manager must be able to communicate instructions clearly and concisely. This is because they are responsible for ensuring that the company’s IT infrastructure is properly implemented, which requires clear communication with other team members.

Example: “In my last role as an IT project manager, I was tasked with implementing a new ERP system at one of our client locations. The installation process took several weeks, so it was important that everyone understood their responsibilities and how they related to the overall installation process. I held weekly meetings with all employees to ensure that everyone had the same information.”

19. Our developers use a wide variety of tools and technologies. Which ones are you most experienced with?

This question helps the interviewer understand your technical skills and how you might fit into their team. You can highlight any specific tools or technologies that are mentioned in the job description to show that you have experience with them.

Example: “I’ve worked with many different programming languages, including Java, Python, Ruby and JavaScript. I also have a lot of experience working with databases like MySQL and NoSQL. In my last role, I was responsible for managing our company’s database, so I’m familiar with SQL as well.”

20. Software engineers must be able to anticipate problems that could occur during development. Explain how you might go about doing this.

This question is an opportunity to show your problem-solving skills. You can explain how you would approach this process and what steps you would take to ensure the project’s success.

Example: “I would first identify all possible problems that could occur during development, including those that are likely to happen and those that are less likely but still possible. I would then create a plan for each of these issues, outlining the best way to solve them before they become a reality. This allows me to be prepared for any challenges that may arise so I can quickly address them and continue with the project.”

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COMMENTS

  1. Has anyone here EVER actually gotten hired for a job that had ...

    I do share the frustrations of take-home assignments though. Prior to getting this job, I've completed 5-6 take-home assignments and moved past that interview stage after only 1 of them. Same deal, open-ended assignments, no feedback on what I did right or wrong afterward despite me asking, generic rejection emails if even that.

  2. Why Take Home Assignments During the Interview Process Are ...

    I didn't think much about this until I read a Reddit comment by someone saying you should never accept an interview process with take home assignment. That's when it hit me that I didn't think about this. Some points: if you accept take home assignment, convert number of hours into days. 3 hr assignment is actually 3 day.

  3. The take home assignment I did was "Too Good"

    The other take home I was given was again, pretty lengthy, and it was given to me before I even got an interview. It was for an internship and the Linkedin post was there for 5 months, which should've made me question why they can't find a candidate in that time and then I realized exactly why.

  4. Interview take home assignments

    What I'm suggesting here is to use the take-home assignment as a chance to evaluate the company, and don't be afraid to walk away if the take-home itself is nonsense. I could have saved myself so much time on several occasions if I'd been brave enough to walk away when I saw the red flags during the take-home process.

  5. Is my take home assignment too much? : r/jobs

    The take home assignment is filled with finance based questions along side with two legal ones, at max. Each question requires extensive research and there's 4 sections with 4 questions each. Each question takes me about an hour to do.

  6. Asked to do a take home assignment after 4 rounds of ...

    I've been interviewing with a company for the past few weeks and have had 4 rounds of interviews. I was told that the last interview with the VP of the department that I would be working in was the final round. A few days after that interview, I heard back from the recruiter and they want me to complete a take home assignment.

  7. A 5-day take-home assignment before the first interview

    It serves as a hub for game creators to discuss and share their insights, experiences, and expertise in the industry. A 5-day take-home assignment before the first interview. Hello fellow game devs, so I recently applied to a position of Unity Programmer, and even before I got a phone screening or an initial interview I was tasked with doing a ...

  8. How long of a take home assignment is acceptable? : r/datascience

    It does 95% of what a take-home assignment does and requires a fraction of the work. Not judging too much on grammar and style, more looking at whether the argument makes sense and is correct. If they blow this out of the water and do well at our code interview (about an hour, a couple of level-appropriate exercises), and they pass the "culture ...

  9. What the Hiring Manager Wants to See in Your Take-Home Interview…

    In fact, the take-home assignment should actually be a huge boost to your confidence. When you're asked to complete one, it's a clear indication that the hiring manager's excited to see how you'd tackle a problem similar to one the organization's been dealing with. In other words, the company's struggled with the issue in the past ...

  10. How to Avoid Common Pitfalls and Ace Your Take Home Assignment

    Documentation is an important part of any software project and you need to be able to demonstrate that in your take home assignment. Make sure to have a detailed readme including your architectural and design decisions, features of the application, testing, how to run the app locally, and a list of the technologies used.

  11. How do you do well on a timed take home coding assignment? : r ...

    I was given a take home coding assignment that had to be done in a few hours during a set window of time and sent back. How can you do well on such an assignment? Any general guidelines or strategies you stick to? I find I can't do my best work under pressure, and it really hurts me getting a job.

  12. Take Home Interview Assignments

    First, make the expectations for the assignment clear. If you want a candidate to create a presentation, tell them that. If you want them to prepare 3 wireframes, then tell them you are looking for 3 wireframes. There may be some value in leaving work open-ended, so candidates can approach however they like.

  13. How fair is the take-home assignment?

    The fundamental problem with a take-home assignment is a candidate has to put in time the employer doesn't. A candidate may spend hours on a take-home, and the employer rejects them after only a ...

  14. Is a take-home assignment after an interview still from this time?

    The take-home assessment interview-also called the working interview-has several pros and cons. Different from an interview skills test, the take-home assignment may include payment.This article will tell you what to expect and help you prepare if you come up against this type of interview. The interview can be an extremely nerve-racking ...

  15. Why Take Home Assignment Interviews are a Big Mistake

    Hiring Managers Should Avoid the Take-Home Assignment. Making the common interview mistake of requiring a take-home assignment most often results in the assignment not getting completed and the candidate pursuing a different employment opportunity that doesn't require an additional assignment. It's understandable that a hiring manager would ...

  16. Passing the Dreaded Data Science Take-Home Assignment

    The data science take-home assignment is a long one-sided interview. In a typical live interview, if your interviewer is a nice person, you can ask questions about the prompt and they'll respond with thoughtful answers. In the data science take-home challenge, you should be doing the same thing.

  17. Acing the Data Science Take-home Assignment

    What is a take-home assignment? Similar to the coding test for Software Engineer, a take-home assignment is a preliminary filter that helps recruiters find candidates with the best skills/commitment to proceed with the next rounds of interviews. It usually comes after the screening round and before the first technical interview.

  18. Take-homes

    A take-home assignment (take-home or takehome) is a coding task given to technical candidates to complete on their own time. Candidates are typically given a day to several days to complete a take-home. controversy Take-homes are controversial. While there are many pros for the companies assigning them, they are less valuable in terms of the candidate experience.

  19. 12 Strategies to Crush Your Data Take-Home Interview

    Interview Meme, Public Domain T here's nothing more frustrating for someone trying to secure a job in data science or analytics than spending 10 hours agonizing over a take-home assignment — conducting exhaustive analysis, creating interpretable visualizations, training a model, etc. — only to receive a canned rejection email and run into a brick wall when you ask for feedback on your work.

  20. The Essential Guide to Take-home Coding Challenges

    3. Making too many assumptions. 4. Starting to code right away. Let's look at each one in detail. 1. Time management and scope creep. Time estimation is one of the hardest problems in programming, and even experienced engineers struggle with it. This plays into take-home challenges in a couple of ways.

  21. The Pursuit of the Well-Designed Take-Home Coding Assignment

    Follow up in the on-site interview. Take-home assignments shouldn't be something that's completed once and never discussed again. Candidates put a lot of effort into these assignments with ...

  22. 5 Examples of Take-Home Tasks for Different Roles

    5 Thorough examples of take-home assignments. Now that you better understand the how, the when, and the why of take-home assignments, we'll show you five examples. The example take-home assignments will cover tasks for: Developer - fixing a broken site. Product manager - redesigning a feature.

  23. An Inside Look Into the Netflix Interview Process

    Therefore, you must do your best in every single interview round, as any of them could make or break your candidacy. The Netflix Interview Process looks like this: Initial Recruiter Phone Screen. Technical Phone Screen. Round 1 of On-Site Interviews. Round 2 of On-Site Interviews.

  24. 20 Carta Interview Questions and Answers

    The take-home assignment is typically 4-6 hours long, and Carta expects candidates to complete it in 2-4 hours. If the abstraction doesn't match their vision of what it should look like, candidates may be rejected. After the take-home assignment, there is usually an onsite interview which consists of multiple rounds of interviews, including ...