Take-Home Assignments: How to Design Them Fairly and Score Them

A take-home assignment is a work sample done by the candidate on their own time. Done well, it is one of the better predictors of how someone will do the job, because it samples the work. Done badly, it is a long, unpaid, unscored chore that drives away good candidates. Keep it short, relevant and clearly briefed, state the expected time, score it against a rubric with at least two independent scorers and use it at a stage where you have already confirmed fit. Pay for anything longer than a short exercise, and provide an alternative for candidates who cannot do it. The same discipline you use for resumes and interviews applies.

The test of a good assignment is whether a candidate could do it in the time you claim.

When to use one

Use it after phone screens and when you have a small number of candidates, so the time you ask for goes to people with a real chance. See hiring process steps for where it fits.

Design principles

1. Relevant: it should reflect real tasks in the role.
2. Short: two to three hours at most, often 60 to 90 minutes.
3. Self-contained: provide all data and instructions, so candidates do not need to guess.
4. Clear: state the goal, the format and the criteria.
5. Fair: no tools or knowledge that candidates must pay for.
6. Artificial: use fictional or public data, so no free work is extracted.

Write the brief

Include:

• The scenario and the question.
• What to deliver and in what format.
• The expected time, and a deadline that allows a few days.
• The criteria you will use to score it.
• What you will do with the output: you will not use it commercially.
• Who to ask if they have a question.
• Adjustments you can offer.

Example for a data analyst: "You have a file of 5,000 anonymised orders. Identify one question the business should ask about late deliveries and answer it. Submit a two-page summary and your code. We expect this to take around two hours."

Score with a rubric

Before sending, write the rubric. Use four to six criteria, such as:

Define what weak, adequate and strong look like for each. See interview scorecard template for how to write anchors. Have two people score independently, and discuss only the differences. Strip names to reduce bias.

Follow up with a discussion

Ask the candidate to walk through the work in a short conversation. You learn how they think, test whether they did it themselves and give them a chance to explain choices. Use the same questions for each, with probes about their decisions. This also makes the task feel like part of the process, not a test.

Fairness and access

Take-homes can disadvantage people with caring duties, jobs or disabilities. Reduce the risk:

• Keep it short and give several days.
• Offer an alternative, such as a live exercise during the interview.
• Offer reasonable adjustments. See reasonable adjustments in hiring.
• Give the same task and time to all.
• Pay candidates for longer tasks.

See candidate experience for how the process feels from the candidate's side.

Common mistakes

• Asking for eight hours of unpaid work.
• Using real company problems and keeping the output.
• No rubric, so scoring is a feeling.
• Different tasks for different candidates.
• Not giving feedback to those who did the work. See candidate feedback after rejection.
• Treating the take-home as the only evidence.

Alternatives

Choose the one that best samples the work with the least burden.

From the candidate's side

If you are preparing for one, read technical interview preparation. Ask about the expected time, the criteria and how it will be used, and plan your time. For the whole process, see structured interviews.