Homework for developers

A quick search on the internet will provide you with quite a few examples of developers withdrawing from the interviewing process for a position in which they were interested in the beginning, but found difficulties solving the practical task part of the interviewing process.

What is a practical assignment?

In most cases, you are asked to build a fully functioning solution from scratch, or you are provided with a piece of code that you have to further develop. This takes from a few hours or sometimes even days to solve.

Hiring managers insist that this approach gives you a proper example for one`s coding style, but the critics point out that it hardly resembles how most programmers work on the job. Another backlash against this is the deepening of the biases against underrepresented groups in tech. Women still perform most childcare which leaves them with much less time to do those tests.

Some people are sharing concerns that their hard work might be actually be used by the interviewing company for their own benefit without the candidate’s permission and acknowledgment.

Another opinion on the topic is that most developers don`t have enough time or can easily find other job opportunities without having to deal with long and exhausting practical tasks. Time to hire is different for each industry and location, but in Bulgaria, the standard process from submitting a resume to contract signing for software development engineers might take just a week or two. According to different online surveys, the average time to hire in most countries would be 30 days. With all the benefits that the practical assignment is bringing to your interviewing process, it will still take a good few days or even a week before you can bring candidates to the next step.

As a recruiter in a company that has implemented this type of assessment for some of our roles, I can confirm that I have had some examples of people withdrawing for that reason. In those cases, we always try to change something about the process – shorten the length of the task, give more time to complete, invite candidates for a peer programming session with the lead developer or overall remove this step as part of the process.

If practical assignments have so many downsides, why employers are still using this method?

Most companies still use test assignments because it`s easier to evaluate many candidates at once and they all will complete the very same task, so all potential sources of bias and inaccurate assessment are easily avoided. In a way, the process is also time-saving for the hiring manager who in another case would have to spend more time interviewing and phone screening.

And what are your thoughts on practical assignments?