Item — HN Reader

>> enforces time limits on challenges

But there is a problem. In the past when I have worked on take home challenges which usually take 3 hours or thereabouts, I have done them in 3 sessions of 1 hour each in the evening after work:

1 hour: think about the problem in detail making some notes for scenarios, edge cases, high level API design etc 2nd hour: first rough cut working draft with some test coverage 3rd hour: polish it up with more tests, docs, a README and sending it out.

I think `takehome.io` should account for time boxing across multiple sessions, else it might be pretty much useless for working engineers who do it across time boxed sessions :-)

PS: I apologize in advance if you already have this feature, but is not so readily evident on your product home page.

1 comments

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate your perspective on time limits.

I don't have that feature, because I would argue that a problem you attack in three 1 hour stints across a span of 72 hours is a 72 hour problem.

Writing software is so much more than just typing. I tend to do my best coding in the shower or driving, nowhere near a computer. As soon as the challenge has been loaded into your brain, the work starts and the timer starts. How much of that time you spend in front of the keyboard is up to you.

Incidentally, I also think that a time limit of longer than an hour is probably too long. Uninterrupted multi-hour blocks are pretty hard to come by. Even if the time limit given isn't enough time for you to complete a perfect, working solution to the problem, it should be enough time for you to do enough work that we've got something meaty to talk about in the next interview.