What employers actually test
Last year skills-based hiring meant a recruiter looking at your GitHub. This year it means a structured test before the human round — and most candidates walk in cold because nobody told them what's on it.
I sat with eight friends who switched jobs in the last six months. Different stacks, different company sizes, same bones. Here is what they were given.
1. Take-home that takes longer than promised
Listed at "two hours, no rush." Real time spent: six to nine hours if you want to pass.
What separates a pass from a reject:
- Read the prompt twice. Half the rejections happen because the candidate solved the wrong problem
- Add one test file even if not asked
- Write a README that names trade-offs you skipped on purpose
Companies running this: most B2B SaaS, almost every Series A startup.
2. Pair-programming with a senior engineer
One hour, screen share, a small bug to find or a small feature to add. They are not testing if you finish — they are testing if you can think out loud while typing.
What kills you:
- Silent struggle for more than 90 seconds
- Refusing to ask clarifying questions
- Not noticing when the interviewer drops a hint
What wins it:
- "Here is what I would Google if I were stuck — let me try that"
- Asking what the existing tests do before changing code
3. System design at junior level
It is creeping down. Three of my friends got system-design questions for "junior + 1" roles.
The expected answer is not AWS architecture. It is: "I would put a queue here because the writes are bursty, and I would denormalize that table because the read pattern is mostly by user_id."
Read one short post on caching strategies and one on database indexing. That covers eighty percent of what gets asked at this level.
4. Async written assessment
Codility, HackerRank, or a custom Notion page with a problem and a deadline.
The pattern that gets you through: solve the problem with the slowest correct solution first, commit it, then optimize. People who try to write the optimal solution from scratch run out of time and submit nothing.
5. Behavioral with a twist
"Tell me about a time you disagreed with a senior engineer."
Wrong answer: "I deferred to them because they had more experience."
Right answer: "I disagreed in the meeting, brought data the next day, and we ended up with a hybrid approach."
Hiring managers want to know you can push back without being a dick.
6. Domain knowledge quiz
Twenty questions, multiple choice, sometimes multiple correct. Things like "which of these is a side effect in React?" or "what does this SQL window function return?"
The trap is overthinking. If two answers look right, both probably are.
7. Code review assignment
They give you a pull request with five files and ask for a written review. They are watching three things: do you spot the bug, do you spot the design smell, and do you write feedback that does not come across as condescending.
A good review reads like: "I think X here will break under Y condition — could we add a test for it?"
8. Reverse interview prep
Increasingly common. They tell you to come prepared with questions about the team, the codebase, and the roadmap. Candidates who show up with three vague questions ("what is the culture like?") lose to candidates who ask "how do you handle on-call rotation for the data team specifically?"
What to do this week
If you are job searching:
- Pick one of these eight tests and practice it for 30 minutes
- Save your past code reviews — you will need to reference them
- Write a one-paragraph "tell me about yourself" that mentions a specific outcome with numbers
If you are not job searching but want to be ready:
- Save take-homes you do at work, sanitize them, and use them as portfolio pieces
The bar moved. The good news is that it moved in a direction where preparation actually beats raw talent.
If you want help structuring your job search around these tests, I built a free job-search tools page with a resume checker, ATS keyword extractor, and interview prep tool — all browser-side, no signup.
Related: Skills-Based Hiring Is Real Now — the original post that prompted this deep-dive.
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