I think the only humane way to administer a take-home coding challenge is with an enforced time limit. That way everyone is on a level playing field and you're not advantaging those candidates that happen to have oodles of free time.
But takes the wrong view on it in my opinion. The answer simply can't be "Just spend as long as it takes".
That point is the thing that led me to build a tool that enforces time limits on challenges via a custom git server. I used it to interview around 100 candidates at a company I was running at the time and it was an excellent approach.
If you want the benefits that take-home coding challenges can bring to your hiring process, but are concerned about treating your candidates humanely, I urge you to check it out.
The author raises that point:
https://www.fullstackinterviewing.com/2018/02/02/the-ultimat...
But takes the wrong view on it in my opinion. The answer simply can't be "Just spend as long as it takes".
That point is the thing that led me to build a tool that enforces time limits on challenges via a custom git server. I used it to interview around 100 candidates at a company I was running at the time and it was an excellent approach.
I've since productised it as https://takehome.io/
If you want the benefits that take-home coding challenges can bring to your hiring process, but are concerned about treating your candidates humanely, I urge you to check it out.