Please stop the coding challenges

> What companies often ignore is the extra time candidates invest beyond the “suggested time” for these tests.

This is a feature not a bug. Companies are testing if you can focus and complete a hard uncomfortable challenging task, because at your job you’re expected to do things you don’t want to do, but will be rewarded for doing.

Requiring a huge time investment like that will filter out a lot of the non-desperate folks…probably exactly the folks they don’t want to filter out!

Also do they really want to set the tone that “I expect you to intuit what I want and I won’t tell you directly”? Sounds like an awful place to work, right out of the gate.

> Also do they really want to set the tone that “I expect you to intuit what I want and I won’t tell you directly”? Sounds like an awful place to work, right out of the gate.

I have only once had this be a problem and in a way, it was my fault for not noting the ambiguity in the submission. Every other time I have dropped a comment saying "you could have intended A, but also could have intended B so this is when I go back to product and request more information."

Companies are backhandedly selecting for those who can invest the most time beyond the suggested time (read: single, childless people in their early 20s who live at home) and those who are willing to work insane hours. It's a pledge of fealty before you are graced with an interview. 15 pieces of flair is the minimum, but it's up to you whether or not you want to just do the bare minimum.

That's a perfectly fair and reasonable tone to set because that's how approximately 99% of non-junior jobs work. My boss says he has a problem he'd like me to solve. He might not have all the details so it's on me to investigate the options, identify the gotchas, and clarify the ambiguities.

I never deliberately snuck ambiguities into coding challenges. I've used it in oral sessions for senior and above devs though. "I'm a product manager who wants to add a new feature. I don't really know what's involved but I want you to implement it. Feel free to ask me a million questions and we'll talk it through!"

> probably exactly the folks they don’t want to filter out!

Maybe? non-desperate folks might waste the company's time. Usually companies can only give out one offer at a time. If the non-desperate person takes a while to accept, someone else in their pipeline may get an offer and flake.

We had a candidate agree to a start date and then cancel 2 weeks before because they decided to stay at their job.

> “I expect you to intuit what I want and I won’t tell you directly”?

They do tell you directly? "Do this hard uncomfortable task, where the task is study leetcode, completing a coding project."

I knew one person that used sick leave (for mental health) to take time off to prep for job interviews due to the toxic work environment.

That is an option if you have higher personal obligations and are struggling mentally.