> When I'm hiring I usually set challenges of about 40 minutes, an hour and a half max.
No. Forty minutes is far too little time. Many people take 10-15 minutes to even get settled into coding. I can't imagine a meaningful, applied, realistic exercise that would take 40 minutes, unless you're wanting basic data structures like a linked list, or a basic sorting algorithm, or something.
You're missing a lot of good people that way, but I guess that's just collateral damage in the quest for the perfect hire, right?
Except your path is the one that has lots of long, burdensome take home tests. Some people have time commitments and/or other jobs to apply to but I guess those people are just collateral damage in your quest for the perfect hire, right?
I am guessing fizzbuzz or something similar. I was applied for a job and got asked to do an n queens programming task. It was for a commodity trading firm. I told them no thanks. When I set code exercises I craft them myself and make them appropriate to the job on offer.
No. Forty minutes is far too little time. Many people take 10-15 minutes to even get settled into coding. I can't imagine a meaningful, applied, realistic exercise that would take 40 minutes, unless you're wanting basic data structures like a linked list, or a basic sorting algorithm, or something.
You're missing a lot of good people that way, but I guess that's just collateral damage in the quest for the perfect hire, right?