Design tasks and take-home challenges: when to say yes

A good task is short, clearly scoped and close to the real job. Here is how to judge one, and how to do it well.

Many design hiring processes include a task: a take-home challenge, a live exercise, or a critique of the company's own product. Done well, it gives both sides a realistic picture. Done badly, it costs you days of unpaid work. It is worth knowing the difference before you start.

What a fair task looks like

• It has a clear time limit, ideally a few hours, and the company tells you how much work they expect.
• The brief is close to the real job, but not real client work they could use.
• You know who will review it and how it will be discussed.
• It comes late in the process, after a first conversation, not as a filter for everyone.

Some companies pay for longer tasks. If a task would take more than a day, it is reasonable to ask whether it is paid, or whether you could show a comparable project from your portfolio instead.

Ask before you start

Clarify what they want to see: polished screens, rough thinking, or a presentation of your process. Ask what the evaluation focuses on and whether you can ask questions during the task. The answers save you hours of work in the wrong direction.

Doing it well

1. Stay inside the time limit and say so. Showing good judgement about scope is part of the test.
2. Write down your assumptions where the brief is open.
3. Show two or three directions briefly, then develop one.
4. End with what you would do next with more time, and what you would want to test.

Presenting it

Treat the review like a portfolio walkthrough: context, decisions, result. Be open about the parts you are not happy with. Interviewers are usually more interested in how you think and how you take feedback than in pixel-perfect output.

When to say no

If a task is very long, unpaid, looks like real client work, or comes before anyone has spoken to you, it is fine to decline politely or suggest an alternative. How a company responds to that is useful information about how they work.