The direction is always the same "spend max a couple hours!"
Interestingly, I always took restrictions on time seriously.
When I was told I should spend max 3 hours, I stopped latest at 3 hours, often earlier and discussed shortcommings of the solution based on spent time in the interview.
That strategy is easier when you are not that interested in that particular job though.
Every job I tried this approach on were immediate rejections. Only solutions that completely fulfilled the requirements, with lots of testing, etc. were accepted for next steps. IE. I've never seen anyone who actually meant it when they gave a time limit.
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Interestingly, I always took restrictions on time seriously. When I was told I should spend max 3 hours, I stopped latest at 3 hours, often earlier and discussed shortcommings of the solution based on spent time in the interview.
That strategy is easier when you are not that interested in that particular job though.
Every job I tried this approach on were immediate rejections. Only solutions that completely fulfilled the requirements, with lots of testing, etc. were accepted for next steps. IE. I've never seen anyone who actually meant it when they gave a time limit.