Skip to content
JL JobLabs

UK Recruitment Glossary

Take-Home Assignment

Alex By Alex · 12-year UK recruiter · Updated April 2026

In recruiter context

Used widely in product, design, marketing, data, and engineering hiring. Length varies — 2 hours for marketing, 4-8 hours for product, 8-16 hours for engineering. The 'time stated' on the brief is usually 50-70% of what candidates actually spend; this is normal. Two ways take-homes go wrong: spending 30 hours when 6 was expected (signals desperation), and submitting work that's clearly under-effort (signals not interested). Aim for the stated time + 30%, document your approach and trade-offs, ship to a public link rather than ZIP'ing it. The work itself is rarely the deciding factor — the conversation about your decisions is.

Related terms