Five years ago, I logged into my university’s portal one last time to submit a 2,000 word paper on Greek Philosophy.

The Business of Takehome Assessments

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2024-04-25 18:30:03

Five years ago, I logged into my university’s portal one last time to submit a 2,000 word paper on Greek Philosophy.

These 2,000 words hadn’t come easy. They had cost me dearly the night before: a no-show at Pappy’s Taco Tuesday ($1 tacos, $2 beer). Thanks, Aristotle.

The one task that causes headaches amongst 8 year olds and graduate students alike was no longer going to be a part of my life. Adios.

You might understand my shock, then, a couple of years later when after applying to a Software Engineering role I was emailed a special concoction called a “takehome assessment”. This concoction didn’t have cute little umbrellas in it.

Instead, it had a link to a Github repository. I would have the pleasure of spending 3 unpaid hours building a fullstack web application for the chance to progress to the next round. A familiar foe had reentered my life.

But what if I told you that after completing a couple of these takehome assessments, I realized that I actually preferred them to the more popular live coding interview style?