We are a remote company. I give take home projects too. Mostly I give them couple of days but mention they shouldn't work more then 4 hours on it.
Our test is actually quite simple and everyone that did any kind of development should have done these basic things.
But it tells me a log of the current state of the candidate. Most code samples on internet are not production ready code. Security and error handling are mostly not included. So this is where a candidate can shine... but I'm happy if you can string it together working even if it is by googling.
So you're saying spending 3 and a half hours on the assignment is fine. It's not.
Take-home assignments have little to no value for the candidate, they're only feasible if you are jobless or in college. The last thing I want to do in my spare time is to stay focusing on a bogus problem that may end up discarded.
Our test is actually quite simple and everyone that did any kind of development should have done these basic things.
But it tells me a log of the current state of the candidate. Most code samples on internet are not production ready code. Security and error handling are mostly not included. So this is where a candidate can shine... but I'm happy if you can string it together working even if it is by googling.