>explicitly, this is 4-6 hours. in practice, it's 20 to 30 if you want to deliver at high caliber
This is a problem with a lot of take home assignments of many types (not just programming). If someone has landed an interview at a company they really want to work for, it's almost not rational for them to just bang out something that's "good enough for government work" some evening rather than taking the time and care to really do it properly.
But this doesn't scale if they're interviewing at a number of companies and/or otherwise just don't have much free time.
This is a problem with a lot of take home assignments of many types (not just programming). If someone has landed an interview at a company they really want to work for, it's almost not rational for them to just bang out something that's "good enough for government work" some evening rather than taking the time and care to really do it properly.
But this doesn't scale if they're interviewing at a number of companies and/or otherwise just don't have much free time.