The alternative to a take-home test is on-site interviews with white board problems. These also take (unpaid) time and are timed (you have until the end of the interview). Doing this part of the interview at-home rather than in-person gives people more schedule flexibility, not less.
The total time spent is higher than most interview processes I think, which can be a struggle for some folks. But I do think it's the right tradeoff.
Regarding why time taken is an important data point -- we found a strong correlation between people who were able to get good solutions working quickly and people who were able to effectively defend their solutions during the "GoldMine review" in their on-site interview.
The total time spent is higher than most interview processes I think, which can be a struggle for some folks. But I do think it's the right tradeoff.
Regarding why time taken is an important data point -- we found a strong correlation between people who were able to get good solutions working quickly and people who were able to effectively defend their solutions during the "GoldMine review" in their on-site interview.