Should senior engineers do take-home assignments?

The conventional wisdom is blunt: senior engineers should refuse take-home assignments. The reasoning is that your GitHub, your system design rounds, and your references should speak loudly enough. If a company still wants a homework project, the argument goes, they do not respect your time.

The data does not support that blanket refusal. A survey of nearly 700 engineers found that only 6% outright refuse take-homes, and 66% of candidates complete them all or most of the time. Surprisingly, the completion rate barely changes when you isolate senior engineers. The seniors who skip them are louder, but they are not the majority. The real question is not whether to do them. It is how to decide which ones are worth doing.

What the data actually says

Candidates complete take-home assignments around 62% of the time on average. The most common reason for finishing one is not desperation. It is interest: 70% of completers said they did it because they genuinely wanted to work at the company. That number includes senior engineers. If the role and the company are compelling, experienced engineers do the work.

The preference split among hiring managers is also instructive. In 2025, 47% of hiring managers said they prefer take-home projects over live coding for mid-level assessment. The format is not going away because it tests something live coding cannot: how you structure a problem, write documentation, and make tradeoffs without someone watching over your shoulder. Those are senior skills.

6%

of candidates outright refuse take-home assignments

interviewing.io survey, 2024 (n≈700)

66%

of engineers complete take-homes all or most of the time

interviewing.io survey, 2024 (n≈700)

47%

of hiring managers prefer take-homes over live coding for mid-level roles

LinkedIn Talent Solutions, 2025

The real problem is value asymmetry

Engineers do not hate take-homes. They hate take-homes that feel extractive. The complaints cluster around the same themes: unclear scope, no feedback, no compensation, and no human contact before the ask. When a company sends a take-home before a single conversation, it signals that their time matters and yours does not. That is the asymmetry, not the assignment itself.

A well-designed take-home can be a selling tool. It can show you the kind of problem the team actually works on. It can replace a live coding round you would rather skip. And it can give you material to discuss in a system design interview. The difference between a good take-home and a bad one is usually scope and respect. A good one takes under four hours, has clear instructions, and is discussed in a follow-up interview. A bad one is open-ended, uncompensated, and disappears into a void after submission.

When to say yes, when to say no

Use this checklist before agreeing to a take-home:

1. Have you spoken to a human first?If the take-home arrives before a recruiter or engineer has invested 30 minutes in you, decline. The company has not earned the right to ask for your time.
2. Is the scope bounded to four hours or less?Over 80% of engineers believe take-homes should take four hours or fewer. If the assignment looks like it will take a full day, ask for clarification or walk away.
3. Will it be discussed in a follow-up interview?Good take-homes are conversation starters. If the company cannot confirm that your submission will be reviewed live with an engineer, the signal-to-noise ratio is too low.
4. Is the company interesting enough to justify the effort?70% of completers said they did the work because they wanted the role. If you are lukewarm about the company, the assignment is probably not worth your evening.
5. Is compensation offered?Only 4% of candidates report receiving payment for take-homes, yet 58% believe they should be compensated. A fixed fee is a strong signal that the company respects your time.

Red flags that signal a broken process

Some take-homes are not merely annoying. They are warning signs about how the company operates. Watch for these patterns:

• No time estimate: A company that cannot tell you how long the assignment should take has not done it themselves. That is a red flag for project estimation on the job.
• Vague requirements: If the prompt is three sentences and a link to a repo, the company is testing whether you can read minds. That is not a skill you want to practice for them.
• Submission without discussion: If your code goes into a black box and you do not speak about it, the process is broken. The value of a take-home is the conversation it enables, not the code itself.
• Unpaid labor disguised as a test: If the assignment looks like a real feature the company needs built, you are being asked to work for free. This is rare, but it happens. Ask yourself: would a junior engineer need to build this exact component to get hired? If the answer is no, be cautious.

Take-home assignments are not inherently disrespectful. They are a tool, and like any tool, their value depends on how they are used. The senior engineer who evaluates the process before evaluating the problem is the one who protects their time without missing good opportunities.

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