The take-home assignment seems to me a slightly broken system; it's easily gameable because there's zero supervision.
Let's say there's two candidates for a position who are both asked to complete the take-home assignment, Candidate A and Candidate B.
Candidate A is the superior candidate and spends only two hours on the task (as requested), and Candidate B spends 2 days. Candidate B submits the better assignment and is more likely to land the job as a result, despite Candidate A being the better candidate.
Let's say there's two candidates for a position who are both asked to complete the take-home assignment, Candidate A and Candidate B.
Candidate A is the superior candidate and spends only two hours on the task (as requested), and Candidate B spends 2 days. Candidate B submits the better assignment and is more likely to land the job as a result, despite Candidate A being the better candidate.