• Since the candidate is getting paid, the candidate treats it as a legit consulting session and therefore gives her best effort in solving the problem.
• It’s an indication to the candidate of how they will be treated in the near future if they decide to join.
• It allows a mock work interaction with the candidate at a very low risk cost to you. After the project is complete, you can bring the candidate in and ask them questions about their actual design/coding decisions. This lets you get a sense of how they communicate, take criticism/questioning.

Rules for PAID Sample project assignments as a form for interviewing potential employees:

•  Give them the weekend to solve the problem.
• DON’T use a real problem because of the tribal knowledge needed to fix.
• The solution you’re expecting should be clear, but open fo...