<aside> 🛠 This is Part 6 of the Just Enough Prep Guide. This workbook will explain why hiring managers request ‘homework problems’ and how you can use them to showcase your skillsets.

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“Homework” problems are increasingly popular as being closer to real work than single-function problems.

The features of homework problems

Typically the features of such problems are:

• A standard time limit, usually not more than a few days.
• That time-limit clock starts at a time that you specify
  • so the clock begins fairly, in a timeframe when you can work around personal or day-job commitments.
• A project specification is handed to you at that time.
• Often within that spec are constraints on the technologies you can use.

Some pitfalls to avoid

First let’s consider how many, many job seekers end up crashing and burning on this problem genre.

• Encountering vague parts of the spec and just guessing what they mean without at least asking.
• When asking such questions, not framing them with enough context to make them easy for your company point-of-contact to answer.
• Working very slowly because at your day job you are used to just building micro improvements on top of robust existing solutions.
• Otherwise spending precious time looking up / recalling how to do tackle open-ended problems from scratch.
  • Nothing’s wrong with looking things up, but at a certain point it will eat up too much of your time-limited time. Find the balance that works for you.
• Working slowly because you are experimenting with:
  • a new framework
  • a new diagramming/prototyping/etc. tool
• Otherwise spending precious time on document/template setup.
• Similarly, spending precious time exploring which tools / frameworks you want to use.
• Not solving, at minimum, exactly what the problem is asking.
  • (It’s impressive — albeit usually unnecessary — to outline bonus features, but at least it needs to match the spec).
• Not testing to check that the solution actually solves the problem.