HACKER Q&A
📣 skassam21

How should we rethink the take-home assessment?


ChatGPT is an awesome tool for developers - it’s only a matter of time before it gets mass adoption. However, I think its causing a bit of a shake-up in how interviewing engineers is done.

I'm particularly interested in understanding its impact on take-home assessments. Personally, I'm a fan of take-homes (as long as they are done correctly). One of the main benefits of take-home assignments is that they don't create the same anxiety as live interviews. Yet, I'm starting to see companies react to ChatGPT by tightening the proctoring constraints of their assessments - completing an assignment in a limited timeframe, using a specific online IDE, disabling copy-paste functions, and so on. But, this kind of approach seems to defeat the purpose of take-home tasks.

How should we modify take-home assessments due to ChatGPT, without resorting to stringent proctoring?


  👤 nradov Accepted Answer ✓
There is no "correct" way to do take home assessments. They are abusive to applicants and largely a waste of time. Most of the best developers refuse to jump through those hoops, so companies that use them are missing out on good employees. If you use such assessments then you're not a competent hiring manager.