I failed a take-home assignment from Kagi Search

Summary

I failed a take-home assignment from Kagi Search 2025, May 13 Preface A "take-home assignment" in the world of Software Developer interviews, is a challenge sent to candidates for them to implement a code solution that solves the challenge. In this blog post I describe my experience doing a "take-home assignment" for a company that I deemed reputable, and I hope to shine some light on the absurdity of this practice. I will show you what kind of requirements are asked of candidates, for free, without any remorse towards wasting their time. I am searching for a job, so I sent my CV I sent my CV for a role at Kagi Search, the description of the role can be found here: The summary in that link would be: Requirements - Proven experience in building backend systems - Proficiency in Go - Strong understanding of scaling and maintaining backend systems - Ability to collaborate effectively with SREs and other team members. - Solid understanding of containerization technologies like Docker My application was answered So I got an email, saying that I was selected for a take-home assignment. Something like this: Thank you for your interest in working at Kagi. We were impressed by your application and would like to move forward with the next stage of our selection process. As part of our evaluation, we'd like you to complete the Kagi Developer Assessment that will showcase your skills and approach to problem-solving. It can be found in the following URL: https://hackmd.io/@antonios/SkeEpQeh1l Once you complete it, please reach out and we'll review it and, if successful, invite you for a follow-up interview where we'll discuss your approach and solution in detail. The URL for the take-home is archived here: https://archive.md/A95Ju. I copy-pasted the requirements into the next paragraph so you don't have to open the link. The take-home The project is to build a minimal, terminal-inspired email client, with the following requirements: Email client can either be in the terminal (i.e...