Ghosted after a take-home assignment: what to do next

If you've been ghosted after a take-home assignment, write once. Email the recruiter about a week after you submitted, or the day after the date they gave you, and ask when to expect a decision and for a few lines of feedback on your work. If another week passes with nothing, move the job to Closed. Before you accept the next take-home, ask how many hours it should take and whether you'll get feedback.

You spent the hours and heard nothing: is it a no?

Not necessarily, and you can't tell from the outside. Greenhouse's 2024 survey of US workers found 23% reporting they were ghosted after take-home assignments, and 47% after conversations with a recruiter or hiring manager. Silence at this stage is common enough that it says little about your code.

How long is too long? Waits reported on Blind run from two weeks of silence after a GitHub take-home to three or four weeks at another company. Silence inside that range is common, so it tells you little yet.

Rejections that do arrive often aren't about the code either. Commenters in a 2023 Hacker News thread on failing four take-homes point to internal candidates and hiring volume. Indeed's reasons for recruiter silence include a delayed hiring process and a team still disagreeing on what it wants. Neither is a review of your work.

If the role itself may be gone, check the posting is still live before you start the next one.

How long to wait, and who to write to

Write to the recruiter. They ran the process, they gave you the deadline, and they often never saw your submission, so a message to them is the lowest-friction way to get an answer.

Indeed advises waiting until the date you were given has passed before following up, and leaving a few days to a week between follow-ups. If nobody gave you a date, we'd count a week from the day you submitted. It's your time that was spent, so it's fair to ask.

One note is the plan. Writing to a second person after it is optional; if you want to, our guide to when the final round goes quiet has that second message written out.

What to send

One short email, with one required ask and one optional one. The required ask is a date. The optional ask is feedback on the work, because some companies won't give it. Someone from Fly.io wrote on Hacker News that they don't give individual feedback because they score against a weighted rubric, and admitted they'd ghosted candidates. So a decision date is always a fair ask; feedback might get a "no", and that's fine.

An example to edit:

Hi Dana, I submitted the take-home on 2 March and wanted to check where things stand. Could you tell me when to expect a decision? If the team has a few lines of feedback on the work, I'd value them, whatever the outcome. Thanks, Sam

Don't apologise for writing, and don't recap the project. Attach nothing.

When to stop and move it to Closed

A week after your note, if there's still nothing, move the job to Closed and stop writing. The hours are gone either way, and chasing them costs more.

Here's how it plays out for an invented product designer. She submits a case study on Monday 2 March after being told it would take about four hours; it took her a weekend, roughly ten. The recruiter says "we'll be in touch." On Monday 9 March she sends the note above to the recruiter. On Monday 16 March there's still nothing, so she moves the job to Closed with the line "take-home, about 10 hours, no reply". The next company that sends her a case study gets four questions first (below).

If a reply does show up in April, nothing stops you answering it. Closed means you've stopped waiting, not that the door is shut.

Before you accept the next take-home

This is the decision that matters, because it's the only one you control. Before you start, ask four questions:

How many hours do you expect it to take?
Will I get written feedback whatever the outcome?
Does it come before or after a conversation with the team?
Is it paid?

A hedge on any of them is an answer. If you're a designer or PM, the same questions apply to a case study.

Ask about hours first, because stated estimates run over. Commenters in the thread where the Fly.io staffer explained the rubric said a "two hour" task can take two days, and he wrote that over two hours is "a pretty good chance it's the wrong job". Knowing the number up front lets you set a time box and decide whether the company has earned it.

You're allowed to decline, or to propose a shorter task or a live session instead. If you do the work, add a short README on what you'd do with more time. It shows judgment, and it stops the project eating another weekend.

What to do with the code you submitted

Keep a copy of what you submitted. Before you submit the next one, read what the instructions say about confidentiality, because that's what you agreed to. Commenters on a 2019 Hacker News thread about a 50-hour take-home that ended in silence gave the same advice: keep the work, and get written permission before it goes in a portfolio. Don't publish the company's prompt, data or brand either way.

What to do this week

Open every job where you've done a take-home and haven't heard back. For each, write down two dates: when you submitted and when they said they'd reply.

Date passed, no note sent: send the one note above.
Note sent more than a week ago: move the job to Closed.
Take-home still ahead of you: ask the four questions before you open the brief.

That's the whole plan, and it keeps your effort for the companies that are answering. When you want the next step for other stages, start with following up on a job application, which collects the guides for each one.

Keep the take-home's dates where you can see them

The week-by-week dates are easy to lose when you're running several processes. HighCircl Job Search keeps the applied date and the steps you log on each job, with Closed as one of its stages. Employers never see your search or applications, and it's free during the open beta, open to 300 people in the US.

FAQ

How long should you wait after a take-home?

Until the date you were given, then write. With no date, we'd write about a week after submitting. Indeed says to wait until the date you were given has passed, then leave a few days to a week between follow-ups. Waits reported on Blind run from two weeks to a month.

Should you follow up after a take-home?

Yes, once, to the recruiter, asking for a decision date. If a second week passes with no reply, move the job to Closed.

Can you ask for feedback on a take-home?

You can, and it costs nothing. Some companies decline: someone from Fly.io said they don't give individual feedback. Treat the feedback request as optional and the decision date as the real ask.

Do you own a take-home you submitted?

Read the instructions you were sent for confidentiality terms, keep a copy, and don't publish the company's prompt, data or brand. If you want it in a portfolio, ask in writing first.

How many hours should a take-home take?

The Fly.io staffer wrote on Hacker News that they should not take 10 hours, and that over two hours may be the wrong job. That's one company's view. Ask the expected hours before you start, and set your own time box.