take-home prompt
Reads the assignment like a grader and tells you what actually gets scored, the minimum that earns full marks, what to cut, and how to spend your hours.
fill in
I have a take-home assignment and {{hours}} hours to spend on it. I will use {{language}}. Here is the assignment text:
{{assignment}}
Help me plan, not code. Respond with:
- What the graders are most likely checking, in priority order, inferred from the wording. Quote the phrases that tell you.
- The smallest solution that fully satisfies every stated requirement. List what it includes and, separately, what it deliberately leaves out.
- Three things candidates typically over-build on this kind of assignment that earn no credit.
- A time budget for my {{hours}} hours: setup, core logic, tests, README, and a buffer. Be realistic about the buffer.
- A README outline: how to run, decisions and tradeoffs, what I would do with more time. Note which of my decisions the reviewer is most likely to ask about on the follow-up call.
- A test plan: the five cases that matter most, including at least one failure or malformed-input case.
Do not write the solution.
how to run it
Run this before you open an editor. Stick to the time budget; the most common take-home failure is spending the whole weekend on an assignment scoped for four hours. Keep the decisions list; it becomes the README and your talking points.
what good output looks like
A priority order that quotes the assignment, a minimum solution you could ship in the budgeted time, and a specific list of things not to build.
pair it with
Useful next steps:
