It's always surprising to read people complaining about spending even 8 hours on a take-home problem in the comfort of their home, with no one looking over their shoulder, finished at their leisure. Meanwhile, anyone serious about applying to the same company wouldn't hesitate to take PTO and leave work to go on-site for a similar amount of time for an interview.
If you do the take-home problem, do you get to skip the interview? My understanding was that it might, at most, replace a 1-hour whiteboarding interview. The one time I did a take-home problem for an interview, I spent a whole weekend day on it (which felt hard, given that I was making my wife watch our child all day), and then I still had to spend a whole day on in-person interviews.
And then they didn't even ask me any questions about my take-home solution--it was just ignored. It felt like a pure waste. I'd much rather do whiteboarding.
The problem might be that you might need to interview for alot of positions and having a homework for each would add up.
The homework is no cost for the employer and you are not sure how serious about you they are when you do it (if it is in the start of the process) so I wouldn't bother if I had an alternatives to go for.
Except most companies give the take home as essentially a first line screen so the chance of passing is low (as they need to filter out 90+% of applicants with it). So instead of spending an hour per company I now need to spend 8. When you're talking to 10+ companies that adds up quickly. If you also have a family and a a day job it becomes untenable very quickly.
It's always surprising to read people complaining about spending even 8 hours on a take-home problem in the comfort of their home, with no one looking over their shoulder, finished at their leisure. Meanwhile, anyone serious about applying to the same company wouldn't hesitate to take PTO and leave work to go on-site for a similar amount of time for an interview.