> I had a take-home assignment to build a Dropbox competitor around 10 years ago, it was a pretty big project
I'm genuinely amused you thought (think?) it acceptable to do such work without payment. Here, any potential employer submitting such a request would be laughed at.
Well, technically if he isn't getting paid, it's his copyright, allowing him to use the code and even create a business around it, and the company has no rights to it- so in this case it worked out well for him.
But yes, its a pretty crappy idea that people should do 'real' work for free to get hired.
I'm genuinely amused you thought (think?) it acceptable to do such work without payment. Here, any potential employer submitting such a request would be laughed at.