I have mixed feelings about work sample tests in general but giving someone a work sample test with a hard limit deadline like they are taking the SAT or something is fucking stupid, no mixed feelings there.
Designing the test so you think it will take X amount of time on average to keep things simple for everyone is a reasonable thing to do, but actually putting a hard deadline (at least one that isn't much longer than you expect the test to actually take... like say a week to do something you think will take 4 hours) on it just because that's how tests usually work is just brainless.
Shit happens in life and you should not expect competent people to drop everything just to jump through your hoops for 4 (or whatever) hours straight no matter who you are. A person who can't perform your test adequately isn't suddenly going to power through it because they had more time, they'll just fuck things up even more with the extra time. Even ignoring all that, if you really want to hire the best developers (and lets assume such developers will deal with your work sample test in the first place which surely isn't a given, btw) wouldn't you rather give the dedicated craftsmen who will pour more time than you expected (out of professional pride for things they put their name on) to come up with a really clever implementation to show you what they are actually capable of building rather than just show you what they can shit out in a couple of hours?
Putting a hard & quick deadline on it is such a dumb thing to do. Please don't do this if you are a hiring person, because secretly everyone will shake their heads and laugh at how stupid you are for doing it.
Designing the test so you think it will take X amount of time on average to keep things simple for everyone is a reasonable thing to do, but actually putting a hard deadline (at least one that isn't much longer than you expect the test to actually take... like say a week to do something you think will take 4 hours) on it just because that's how tests usually work is just brainless.
Shit happens in life and you should not expect competent people to drop everything just to jump through your hoops for 4 (or whatever) hours straight no matter who you are. A person who can't perform your test adequately isn't suddenly going to power through it because they had more time, they'll just fuck things up even more with the extra time. Even ignoring all that, if you really want to hire the best developers (and lets assume such developers will deal with your work sample test in the first place which surely isn't a given, btw) wouldn't you rather give the dedicated craftsmen who will pour more time than you expected (out of professional pride for things they put their name on) to come up with a really clever implementation to show you what they are actually capable of building rather than just show you what they can shit out in a couple of hours?
Putting a hard & quick deadline on it is such a dumb thing to do. Please don't do this if you are a hiring person, because secretly everyone will shake their heads and laugh at how stupid you are for doing it.