There’s an ongoing debate in the tech industry around whether programming take-home challenges are a fair and effective way to assess developers. On one hand, they allow candidates to code in a calm, controlled environment — at their own pace, with access to their tools and resources. It’s a great opportunity to demonstrate your skills more fully than in a high-pressure live coding interview.

On the other hand, take-home challenges often require you to invest hours of unpaid time, with no guarantee of feedback or results. For many candidates — especially those with full-time jobs, caregiving responsibilities, or limited bandwidth — this can be a big ask.

Whether or not take-home assessments are the best way to evaluate developers, they remain a common practice among small and medium-sized companies. So if you're applying to these organizations, it's important to know how to approach them effectively and strategically.

Through trial, error, and reflection over time, I’ve found a few practices that help make the process smoother — and the end result stronger. I don’t aim for perfection, but rather for delivering clear, functional, and well-structured solutions that meet expectations and reflect good engineering habits.

In this article, I’ll share a summary of strategies that have helped me deliver polished technical assessments. I hope these are useful for you as they’ve been for me. The list is somewhat exhaustive from my own perspective — I included as many practices as I typically apply (time permitting). If some of these aren’t familiar to you, take the time to read more about them. With practice and patience, you can add these strategies to your toolbox — and rock your next take-home project.

🔑 Core Principles

1. ✅ Focus on fulfilling all required functional and technical requirements

Get the fundamentals right. A working solution that meets expectations is your strongest starting point.

2. 🧽 Plan your design — and keep it simple, but structured

Plan before you build. Simplicity with thoughtful structure is more powerful than clever but messy code.

3. ⏳ Manage your time and scope wisely

Work within realistic time constraints. Prioritize what adds value and leave notes for potential improvements.

4. 🧠 Leverage AI — but know your solution inside out

Use tools like ChatGPT or Copilot to assist, but make sure you understand and can confidently discuss your code.

5. ⚡ Meet performance expectations without over-engineering

Focus first on building a solution that performs well under expected conditions. Use appropriate data structures and algorithms that solve the problem efficiently. If time allows, optimize further — but avoid adding premature optimization

🛠️ Implementation Best Practices

6. 🧲 Include unit tests — even if they’re not required

Testing shows care, design awareness, and commitment to quality, even with limited time. You can start with unit tests and, only if you have extra time, dive into integration tests.

7. 🤝 Use Dependency Injection

This improves modularity and testability — it’s expected in most modern frameworks.

8. 🧱Apply SOLID principles and design patterns where appropriate (especially in OOP-focused assessments)

Use good design when it makes sense, and explain why you avoided unnecessary complexity if you did.

9. 🔧 Externalize configuration

Use environment variables or config files. This makes your code more flexible and easier to test or deploy.

10. 🧰 Use logging — and consider structured logging if you want to take it further

At minimum, log meaningfully. If you want to impress, go further with structured logging for observability.

📦 Reviewer Experience Considerations

11. 🤖 Automate the setup process

Make it easy to run the app: Docker, CLI scripts, README instructions. Reviewer experience matters.

12. 📘 Write a solid README

Communicate clearly: how it works, how to run it, how to test it, and the decisions you made such as trade-offs, assumptions, the “why” behind what you built, and what you left out or simplified due to time.

13. 🌐 Test outside your local machine

Validate your setup on another platform or container. "It works on my machine" isn’t enough.

🧠 Professional Polish

14. 🔎 Pay attention to the details

Format your code, write clean names, and polish your messages. Details show pride in your work.

15. 📜 Keep your code readable and expressive

Code should explain itself. Avoid clever shortcuts in favor of clarity and consistency.

16. 🔁 Use meaningful Git practices

Use clear commit messages and structure your Git history like you would in a team setting.

17. 🔐 Avoid exposing sensitive data

Keep credentials and secrets out of version control. You can use environment variables, secrets managers, .env files, .gitignore to help you with that.

18. 🚀 Publish the code if allowed

If it’s permitted, push it to GitHub. It helps the reviewer and builds your public portfolio.

19. ⚙️ Enable Continuous Integration (CI) when possible

Setting up CI is a bonus that shows you're familiar with DevOps and automation best practices. I’ve never done it on a take-home, but I’ve been thinking this might give you extra points.

💡 Final Thoughts

Don’t worry if you can’t apply all of these. When it comes to technical assessments, the goal isn’t perfection. It’s to show that you:

Understand the problem.
Can deliver clean, functional code that meets requirements.
Know how to structure a project professionally.
Apply best practices where they matter.

And most importantly, be kind to yourself throughout the process.

You won’t have time to perfect every detail, and you don’t need to. A polished solution isn’t about overthinking or over-engineering — it’s about making thoughtful choices, staying within scope, and demonstrating maturity as a developer.

So give yourself credit for the strong things you built. Reflect on what could be improved for next time. Do your best with your time, and then let it go.

💬 What about you?

What do you think makes a strong take-home technical project?
What practices, tools, or mindsets have helped you deliver better results?

I’d love to hear your thoughts — feel free to share them in the comments or connect with me.

From Good to Polished and Professional: A Thoughtful Approach to Take-Home Challenges