How to respond to interview task where you are asked to complete a whole module

Question

This has been one of frequently occurring thing with me while interviewing with companies. I am android developer with 6+ years of experience and during course of my career I have given many interviews.

My question is about technical rounds, Usually during which we are tasked to submit a piece of code. I have submitted coding tasks that included bunch of small tricky programming questions or a small working demo that usually takes anywhere between 1-3 hours of effort. But, Sometimes while interviewing with some companies I have been tasked with completing the whole module that takes days worth of effort.

For example in one of the recent interview, Interviewer in the problem definition mentioned to implement a complete flow of creating and capturing image and video using custom camera implementation. After capturing the video and image it needs to be displayed in user feeds and to be uploaded to server. Once the image is uploaded user can upload it to facebook. Other users should be able to view and rate the video posted by you.

This seems like a whole app module or a complete flow in itself. Tasks like this for technical challenges seems unnecessarily long and irrelevant to me and I am confused about how to respond back to them. I don't want to be unprofessional by not responding at all, but what can be the best path to approach this without sounding not interested, unprofessional or doubting their interview process?

Answer 1

to implement a complete flow of creating and capturing image and video using custom camera implementation. After capturing the video and image it needs to be displayed in user feeds and to be uploaded to server. Once the image is uploaded user can upload it to facebook. Other users should be able to view and rate the video posted by you.

Are they expecting you to do all the non-Android server work as well? What does glassdoor say about their company?

This sounds to me like they're just expecting you to do one or two weeks of work for free. I wouldn't do it. Instead, you could suggest an alternative way to test you.

For instance, you could offer to do live coding in front of them or with live screen sharing, but with a hard limit of 1 to 2 hours. Or you could ask them to pick functionality that they already have. After all, if they're trying to measure you against a developer they already have (or a developer they already hired in the past), it's best to compare actual work that was done by both of you.

Or you could ask that they pay you for your time, or make a donation in your name to a charity of your choice in exchange for your time.

But even that last one, you have to be careful. You'll need to make them sign a contract and specify that you won't deliver the actual codebase until they've actually paid you in full, or made the donation to your chosen charity in full.

And/or you could simply say "No, please find another way to test me." I've said "No" before and I was still interviewed. And if they're really serious about hiring someone, they may still interview you even if you say "No".

what can be the best path to approach this without sounding not interested, unprofessional or doubting their interview process?

By the way, professionals don't agonize over saying "No" to unreasonable demands.

In fact, politely saying "I'm interested in the job and I'm interested in interviewing with you, but I'm not going to do this homework for you." or simply saying "No" to the wrong clients can be the most professional thing one can do sometimes.

Answer 2

I wouldn't propose an alternative test; rather I'd just accept or refuse to continue the process.

How you react really depends only on how much interest you have in this specific job.

Interviews are two-way streets and you are judging the company as much as they are judging you. It is clear that this request doesn't expose them in a good light and tells something potentially negative about company's culture. Nonetheless, other aspects of the job might still be interesting. If so, just accept and go on. If you already were in doubt, this might be your deciding factor in letting down this opportunity.

Even if they accept to change the test, this won't change the fact that they proposed it in the first place. This is the important thing that you should evaluate with all the other elements about the company you got.

Answer 3

If you choose to complete a large project as part of a technical interview and suspect that your interviewers are trying to get free work out of you, one approach you could take is to submit all your code under the GNU GPL or a similar copyleft license, this way they cannot use anything you write internally (unless they violate the GPL).

The point of a technical interview is to demonstrate that you are competent; they should not have a problem with you submitting your code under the GPL. If they do have a problem, that raises a red flag. I've done this with some of my technical interviews and have never had an issue.

Answer 4

what can be the best path to approach this without sounding not interested, unprofessional or doubting their interview process?

Doing the task set without any drama.

Any pushback leads to the three things you don't want to happen.