[llmthrow103]

As a hirer, the kind of takehome assignment I like to give is one that:

* Can be completed in 30 minutes by a skilled programmer

* Has clear evaluation criteria, both objective and subjective

* Has multiple approaches that require making different tradeoffs

And of course, only give it to some candidates where the result will be make-or-break.

As someone who took one of these broad take-home assignments my last time looking for a job, I failed a the assignment for a job I was overqualified for because I was told I wasn't able to divine what parts of the extremely broad assignment I would be graded on.

I doubt I will be in a position where I get a job that isn't a referral for the rest of my career, but it really turned me off of these kinds of assignments, both taking and giving them.

[theamk]

Very curious: how do you deal with AI answers for those?

While writing my questions (and testing in my teammates), I found that "can be completed in 30 minutes by a skilled programmer" very often means "can be completed almost automatically by AI", and that AI will give explanations too, that interviewer could repeat during code review phase.

[llmthrow103]

Every step in the process is a filter. You can ask them not to use AI and trust, you can ask them what tools they used (including AI) and for what part, you can ask the candidate to screen record them programming their solution and forbid using AI, you can ask them about their solution in a followup interview, etc.

It's kind of up to what you're filtering for, and how much you trust the candidate at that part of the process, and how you follow up after hiring.

[throwaway2037]

Holy crap. That was exactly my same reaction. Only thirty mins to complete? Sheesh: Vibe code that!