Test tasks when applying for a job. What do you think?

Question

Career in IT

I was offered by a potential employer to make a python program with the following content:
1. For a series of articles (4k excel files, each with 10k characters), develop a solution that makes an abstract (summary) for each article.
2. Execution algorithm (recommendation of the employer):
- create your own transformer;
- bert NN (customize and optimize for the task);
- gpt NN (configure and optimize for the task);
- longformer (customize and optimize for the task).
Deadline - 3 days.
Is such a deadline and task, in general, normal for a test (I applied for the role of Middle)?

Answer 1

The test item should give the technical interviewer an understanding of your skills.
Usually, in order to develop this very understanding, it is enough to ask for an example of code that the applicant considers to be of very high quality.
The assignment for 3 days is lean crap that speaks of the low level of the interviewer.

Answer 2

it’s normal, it’s possible to do it in a whole unknown area in three days, if you have already worked in this area and you’ll dash off in the evening.
for such a task three days is the norm

Answer 3

Everyone has their own opinion on this, but more still depends on how much you want to work with them. I now believe that the time for test tasks should be within the framework of the interview, and not 3 days. So under normal circumstances, I would refuse or ask to be paid for this time, but if I had problems finding a job or really, really wanted to work for them, then maybe I would have agreed to this.

Answer 4

Lead time is not the same as labor time. 3 days is quite normal, given that you, for example, work, go to other interviews and in 3 days you can allocate only a few hours for a task.
Labor input in 24 hours is inadequate for the test item. Either the employer does not know how to compose tasks, or immediately shows his attitude towards future employees, or something else in the same vein. In any case, this characterizes him in a certain way. Whether it suits you or not, it's up to you.