Take-Home Free

Loops that display “Take-Home Free” means the reviewer was not required to complete a take-home assignment in the interview process, or they did not reach that stage of the interview process if the requirement came later.

Our position is that take-home assignments can be problematic for some candidates; problematic enough to surface this as a signal to differentiate companies who require take-home assignments versus companies that do not.

We recognize opinions and research vary on this topic, so below is an objective look at both sides of the argument.

Take-home assignments can be helpful for candidates

A few arguments in favor of take-homes:

• For introverts, people who suffer from severe interview anxiety, or those who simply freeze under pressure, a take-home may allow them to show their best work in a calm environment.
• Take-homes can mimic how work actually happens, allowing candidates to use their preferred setup.
• The async, lower-pressure format may be fairer to neurodivergent candidates.

Take-home assignments can be problematic for candidates

In consisderation of some of the disadvantages of take-homes:

• Take-home assignments may bias toward availability, not ability. Candidates who are currently employed full-time, have caregiving responsibilities, or are running several interview loops in parallel typically cannot allocate the same hours as someone interviewing between jobs.
• Take-home work is often unpaid and risks being masked as free work if the prompt looks suspiciously close to real business problems the company is trying to solve.
• “Don’t spend more than 2-3 hours on this, but feel free to show us what you can do.” Most candidates are likely to spend 2-3x the stated hours given open-ended expectation to provide their best work.

Have strong opinions of your own on take-homes?

Reach out to us at hello@authenticloops.com if your position differs from ours, especially if you’re a hiring manager and you feel we need to reconsider our position.