> Another thing that I can take away from that is "take home project" is no longer a good idea in AI times
Take-home projects were never meant to be evaluated in isolation.
It was common for candidates to have their friends review the take-home or even do it for them.
You had to structure the take-home so the candidate could then explain their choices to you and walk you through their thought process. When you got a candidate who couldn't answer questions about their own submission, you thanked them for their time and sent the rejection later that evening.
The difference is that AI can now feed them explanations as well. Their friends (who IME were usually also mediocre coders: everyone I've seen who actually did well on a take-home actually was that good) didn't have the patience to sit around and help them memorize a bunch of extra nonsense.
At some point it feels like it would be easier to just get good at programming, and yet...
Take-home projects were never meant to be evaluated in isolation.
It was common for candidates to have their friends review the take-home or even do it for them.
You had to structure the take-home so the candidate could then explain their choices to you and walk you through their thought process. When you got a candidate who couldn't answer questions about their own submission, you thanked them for their time and sent the rejection later that evening.