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Take-home execution

Take-home assignments: scoping, quality signals, testing under a time-box, commit history, the README and defending your work in the review call.

6 lessons

Building and defending it

  1. 1Scope and time-box a take-homeSort the brief, finish the musts end to end inside the stated time, and write down what you left out.
  2. 2Senior quality signals in a take-homeReviewers run the error path first: truthful screens for every request, server-side validation, config from the environment, one-command setup, no dead files.
  3. 3Testing strategy under a time-boxA few chosen tests: each rule at its edge, one main journey, and a written list of what stays untested.
  4. 4Commit history as a storySmall commits that each pass their tests, with messages that say what and why, turn your history into evidence.
  5. 5The README as a design docThe reviewer reads your README before the call and plans the call from it, so write it as your voice.
  6. 6Defending the take-home in the review callThe call tests how you reason about and change your own code, not whether it was right.