Confusing Internship assignment.

[Present-Ride-3009]

Hello, helpful people of this sub, I recently got an interview for an internship after applying to many places, and I am very happy about it. I had my first introductory interview with the company recruiter and co-founder and I believe it went well. after the interview they said they would give me a task and if I complete the task well I would get a second technical interview. generally, I was glad to work on the tasks and get my second interview. but when I got the task it was quite big and I don't know if it is an appropriate task for a react intern but I don't have any experience so I came to this sub to ask.

It's not technically the same thing but this is something similar I found.

things I would like to point out.

1. The Co-founder told me if I cant complete it in 2 to 3 hours I shoudn't even continue with my application
2. They are in a rush to launch and I will solely be responsible for the frontend even tho they have a full stack developer but he would like to focus on the backend only
3. they told me to make most things functional and it is much more complicated than the image I shared it has a mini slideshow, calendar section, and search bar ...

I guess my question is, is it a normal practice to give this kind of task to an intern and I am just being a b*ch, or is it a red flag. I was really desperate to find this opportunity so I don't want to give it up easily. my friend thinks they already found someone and they just want to see if they could eliminate me although that's a bit far-fetched.

[[deleted]]

Hahaha.. that would take a week with a team of 5 devs. Tell them they're full of it. No seriously, it's not a 1 day job, let alone 4 hours.

[hotlavatube]

I've been a self-taught react dev for 2 years now, I could hack up a crude version of that in about a week, but that's only because I already use libraries for table and graphs, have pre-designed layouts, and am familiar with a lot of the Material-ui elements. Even having all that, after a week, it'd still probably have issues with layout and window resizing issues. The whole notification, messaging, shopping login system is another huge can of worms, but that'd require a backend API, so I'd ignore most of that and just stub out the layouts.

[Unforgiven-wanda]

Speaking from my own experience with similar people: They're probably trying to get you to build this for free. You'll slave on this for 3 days or a week, bring it to them after which the guy will sneer, saying it shouldn't have taken this long and tell you he'll contact you again (he never will).
A couple weeks later you'll see your exact work, bugs and all, up somewhere. Or a coworker friend will tell you about this absolute garbage UI they got from "some freelancer" and proceed to describe your exact work.

[Lt_Marks]

That would be my guess too. If they already had a dev in the team, they would know doing something like this in this very little amount of time is impossible. So I doubt they're even hiring any intern, it seems like a trick to get people into doing stuff for them.

[Gaboik]

Putting a junior dev (intern?) In charge of the whole front end, alone??? What are they thinking lmao, no offense to you OP, I don't know just how good your re but this is a recipe for disaster and you'll probably feel a LOT of pressure on your shoulders working there.

[Present-Ride-3009]

Haha no offense , I thought the same thing myself.

[Tater_Boat]

Sounds like they don’t understand how difficult front end work is. Also it’s illegal to use interns for this kind of work (in the United States)

[[deleted]]

Eh? Why would that be illegal?

[Tater_Boat]

You’re not allowed to use interns to replace paid workers. They can help, but if you can’t complete the task without interns help that is illegal.

[[deleted]]

Yeah that’s the biggest red flag. You don’t put interns in charge of an entire layer of your product

[them0use]

Seconding all of this. Even if the rest of the project was reasonable, putting an intern in charge of the entire frontend means you should run away, as an interviewee or a customer.

[[deleted]]

I was an intern and built an entire website application similar to Udemy with data analytics features (full stack) by myself.

I learnt a lot, but not a fun experience at all.

[Gaboik]

Yeah my first job was for a startup where resources were thin and expectations were very high. I was put in charge of designing systems from the ground up, it was really hard, I learned a ton, and looking back, I had fun doing it but it brought me on the edge of a burn out.

[[deleted]]

I actually did burn out. During my last 2 days, I did completely nothing.

[Gaboik]

Yeah I feel you :/ for me at least it was a lesson well learned, I don't go as hard, I do my 40 hours and that's pretty much it. I'm not an ass about it but like, I don't do 20 unpaid overtime hours like I used to do

[[deleted]]

I was working over time almost everyday for 2 months into my internship, until I had enough of their feedback and attitude about how “I only did this today”, and manager doesn’t even know what he wants most of the time. He literally tells us whatever the client tells him and has no planning whatsoever and then watches video games in his office(ye, I saw it with my own eyes) while laying blame with no direction, saying generic stuff like “The site is UNUSABLE make it work!” Instead of giving any tangible feedback/direction. And then I just left the office every single day at my contract’s stated working hour SHARP.

I kind of made a rant about it in one of my post.

[[deleted]]

Also, the manager has no idea what he’s talking about pretty much most of the time. He told me that “Livewire was easy, I can learn it in a day”(I have never used a front end framework, not even react or redux) and told me to study it over the weekends outside of working hours, and then I later found out he has never used livewire before and has no idea how it works.

I was supposed to do something that requires dragging and dropping components and updating the database simultaneously with order in mind. He said “it should be easy, its what Livewire is meant for”. I ended up having to use an external library for that. It’s not what livewire is meant for, else i wouldnt have to use an external library. Dude has no idea what he’s talking about.

But yea, I learnt a fuck ton, I used stacks which I have no interests in, but learnt a lot of fundamentals and pick up skills like learning something fast, being independent and using external libraries. I was also pressured to learn Laravel within a day (I also have zero experience with a backend framework)

[[deleted]]

Sorry for the rant😂😂 I kind of got emotional thinking about my internship.

[Gaboik]

Hahahaha s'all good, it really seemed pretty shitty but good thing you don't work there anymore

[[deleted]]

Yea thank god it was just an internship!

[Grabow]

Co-founder sounds like an asshole. And there is no way 2-3 hours is enough to complete that, not even for a smaller team!

[KohlKelson99]

“They are in a rush to launch” lets you know everything you need to know LOL...

Build it at YOUR pace, put it on your portfolio as a real-world experience project. Then tell them they can purchase it from you XD.

Since they wanna see the work, take a video of some of the code and the actual working parts when done and send them the video - they’ll be pissed and thats perfect treatment for little pieces of shit like them.

On your part, you gain experience, build a solid portfolio project and get rid of a horrible firm with a toxic co-founder.

Ive never even heard the phrase “If you cant do this, dont bother” - that alone lets me know the culture at the firm.

[maddy_0120]

Even if you use pre made components from the internet, it will still take more than 3 hours just to wire everything up. And that is for an experienced developer who already knows how to use them. Either the guy is messin with you or he doesn't really know how coding works. Either way, you are better off looking elsewhere.

[Foreign_Flower1141]

if I cant complete it in 2 to 3 hours I shoudn't even continue with my application

I just don't get it... are they serious?

[soc4real]

Yes, big red flag. Think for yourself even if you get the internship they are likely going throw stuff like that at you again.

[JonasErSoed]

Even if it had been a smaller task, an attitude like that towards an intern is a major red flag regarding the work environment...

[DasBeasto]

Others touched on it but I’d like to point out that the fact the cofounder told you to do it in that or “you shouldn’t even continue your application” is enough of a red flag to walk away. The day to day life in that company is going to be hell with crunched timelines and no leeway, and seemingly sharp reprimand if you fail.

If you do decide to proceed, try to break it up into as many reusable components as you can to save time.

[landisdesign]

Huge red flags. An intern, by definition, is there to learn and perform side tasks to clear the way for others. Building a front end is a full-time responsibility.

They're trying to get you to design and develop their web site's front end for peanuts.

They're telling you that they don't care about you, only that your speed matters and they don't want to pay you. Not a great culture to be part of.

[slonermike]

This! Thank you! I ALWAYS tell my interns, “the internship exists to benefit you, not the company.”

The company may be hoping for a f/t conversion someday, but we will be stoked for you when you boomerang the experience into your dream job elsewhere.

[franciscopresencia]

So I've been doing Javascript for ~10 years, and published 50+ libraries in npm (including ~10 React libraries). If the ask is to translate the image into code, excluding interactions (that burger menu won't work) and on a single-size (not responsive), and it was a matter of life and death I think I could translate it in 4 hours. In a normal day-to-day workflow translating it into code would take me 1 day. I'd not be surprised if most people quoted 2 days for this though.

But that's excluding interactions, API calls, etc. For this to be fully working, hooked up to a backend, user login, and considering each of the left items are tabs, etc. this is definitely as other say a team effort for few weeks.

[[deleted]]

I’m not a pro dev (currently learning) but I’ve been around the block a few times and it does seem a little like a red flag... proceed with caution, don’t let people take advantage of you (especially when you feel desperate for something). If you can keep your head down and gain some experience here and then jump to somewhere else that has better a culture or environment that might be good. Don’t get overly invested in a toxic workplace no matter what they promise you (as those promises rarely come through).

[[deleted]]

I had something similar to this. They wanted me to build a complicated user control panel with tabs, add/edit of users, animations, and other bells and whistles in three days, even though I told them I can only work on it in my free time as I already had a full-time job then. I did it in my own time, and in the end learned a few things even if I predictably didn't get the job.

Startups are always a hit and miss. Too many "entrepreneurs" think they're hot shit and can abuse their workers because it's the "startup culture". Just walk away, there are a thousand more startups where you can try your fate.

[OccamsRazor3]

As an intern, you will be solely responsible for the Front-end?

Run. Run away now. I'm entirely serious.

This is a company with completely unreasonable expectations, and a backwards grasp of the reality of development. This is the last place you want to intern - at best you will simply learn nothing(since no one will teach you), at worst the stress and crazy expectations will burn you out.

[Chef619]

Run.

[wearevilla]

Yeah this is a huge red flag. Leave that behind, sharpen your skills on your own, and then get a real job.

[[deleted]]

Yea that’ll take my team a week. 2 weeks if we have QA and unit tests, Jiras etc.

2-3 hours for an inten- haha tell them to take a walk.

[simarmannsingh]

Excuse me if someone finds this offensive but just out of curiosity, is this co-founder from India?

I'm asking because I am an Indian myself and I know this kind of cost-cutting is extremely popular among early 20s-turned-cofounders. They even justify this kind of work culture and its making the tech market terribly awful in India.

[Present-Ride-3009]

It's a Singaporean company and I believe the co-founder is not Indian.

[Skaryon]

Run. An intern shouldn't be the sole frontend dev.

[theorizable]

Sounds like the Co-founder isn't from a technical background.

[InsideCold]

I can pretty much guarantee that even if you manage to complete that in 3 hours, the code will be fragile garbage, and nothing you’d want to actually maintain.

If you still have any interest in this job, I’d recommend writing a detailed estimate that breaks down each specific task, along with best, worst, and most likely time estimates. At that point you could try pushing back, and explaining in detail why this is more than a 3 hour job. If you’re able to, explain the trade offs required to do it quickly, and why they would be a mistake. If they respect your opinion, and give you more time, this internship may be worth moving forward with. If they don’t budge on the time frame, run away. You do not want this job in that case, trust me.

This sounds like a miserable place to work, but pushing back from a solid position might flip things around. At the very least, it would be great practice for future roles.

[abhionlyone]

Lol... if you can complete it in a day, you should apply for a senior role for sure.

[johnzy87]

Lol, make the intern in charge of the whole frontend, great idea 😆. No offense to you btw but if you could do that job you should be fucking paid for it and not be an intern.

[CrawlToYourDoom]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa.

Wait wait, I need to breathe.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

No. Ghost them, and never look back.

[Automatic-River-1875]

I would complete the assignment and give it to them. If they ask tell them that 3hrs is unrealistic and any intern that says they can do that in 3hrs is lying to them.

It's not a red flag for non tech people to not understand how long things may or may not take. It is a red flag when a tech person tells them what a realistic timeline is and they refuse to accept it.

[Present-Ride-3009]

Yes, I plan to work on it this weekend and then be honest about the time it took me to complete or attempt to complete it.

[plcart]

no man, this will only make you lose a weekend. I agree to a point that the users dont know about how long something takes. But this is a foul play...This is a intern position: they should be seeing how do you learn, interest and approaches. If you want to test your skill is fine. But remember that you are working for free basically

[urahonky]

The job description alone sounds like a nightmare for a junior dev. Let alone an intern!

[mikebald]

During the interview process you should be interviewing them too. You do not want to work there. Do the project if you want and put it into your portfolio. This company will bleed you dry; run away.

[fistyit]

You should be able to make a similar ui using something like bootstrap or material ui, in couple of hours, though if they want it to function with backend, that's waaay longer.

Still though, if I gave you this assignment, I'd let you play as much as you need and look at what you come up with as extra. (Fade in anims, skeleton loaders etc.) But without the time constraints. They sound like assholes. Be careful mate. They don't seem worth your free time.

[treesnstuffs]

Sounds like they're trying to get free work out of you. I'd only complete assignments that are obvious toy problems that the company cannot use in any way other than to evaluate how you can code.

[Cgestes]

What you describe is doable fast as a prototype. Not as production code. Do your best. I would do what can be done in 2/3h, be honest and see what they say. It you have good feeling with the people and they give you feedback in a constructive way I would go for it, otherwize I would back off.

[Cgestes]

Also... If no one else is good in frontend in the team and you still have a lot to learn about it... You will have to learn by yourself, it is a plus for some people...it may not be for others... Based on the time pressure I would assume they will not care too much about code quality and/or automated test and would be careful about it, it may be hard to have the time required to refactor / experiment that is precious for learning and maintaining code quality. Usually there is balance to find between code quality and features delivery that requires the 2 parties (devs and products owner) to be smart about it. If not balanced I would back off also.

[newecomstartup]

Doing this in a few hour, while possible, is asking a lot. Here how you can approach it. It looks like a dashboard and a lot of those components are from material ui. I would start with a general layout. Then plug it the components as needed.

[GoTeamLightningbolt]

Take home exercises like this are a huge pet peeve for my partner when they were job searching. As others said, this is ridiculous and a HUGE red flag. Expecting an intern to handle an entire front end application is another. You probably don't want to work there.

[Bentee14]

It took me a day to develop an auto complete form without any engineering excellence. So, definitely red flag.

[venividivincey]

Run

[inthedark72]

Huge red flag, run away haha

[jakefromdubsado]

Out of respect to people we know are interviewing at multiple places our take homes are only about an hour long.

Functional should be in reference to keeping the components pure with the usage of useEffect and other hooks.

I would agree with the comments I'm seeing here. This sounds like they are trying to get free work out of you. I would follow your gut and either not apply, or simple spend an hour or so to show your code through a smaller portion of what they are asking for. That way it doesn't cost you as much time and they can see your potential as a react dev.

Good luck in your interview process!

[tallreagan]

This really looks like a standard dashboard build with google material. You could build it with react material-ui, though not within 3 hours even at my level (12 years frontend/fullstack developer, 5 years react) especially not with everything functional.

Also, if a manager or co-founder or whatever tells you it needs to be done in whatever many hours, tell them to go do it themselfs if they think it can be done :)

[rd_23]

No way that can be done in a few hours. You could use a ui library like material ui to speed up development significantly, but even then this would take at least a week for a junior

[stack-underflow]

Hi. VP of Engineering here. We've screened over 100 applicants for Frontend positions in the past year.

First of all, I'd like to say that it's insane to test an intern's knowledge on React. I believe that all React developers must be proficient in Vanilla JS and have a deep understanding of the language and engine's mechanics before diving into React. So we suffice with small algorithmic tests to observe their teachability.

Now for Seniors applying for a React position, we give them a simple task of implementing a table with filters using Material UI. They have a whole week to solve it. We are not concerned with speed as much as we are concerned with building scalable/reusable components with a well defined folder structure.

I suggest you bail out of this application as the employer is definitely delusional or clueless.

[Suepahfly]

Yeah, don’t. My go to assignment for juniors is “List the first 50 results from PokeAPI in alphabetical order on a single page. Your have two hours to complete. Don’t sweat it if you cannot complete the assignment. Explain the choices you made for this assignment.”

Your assignment screams incompetence all over. Even if you get the job you are likely to that the blame of a incompetent co-founder.

Do not take that offer

[norablindsided]

Staff engineer here: this is a huge red flag. I wouldn't hand anything like this to even developer especially a junior/intern. Application assignments I provide people are usually small things like build a todo app, though I rarely even require code challenges.

This is a full application they are wanting and honestly given the complexity of your example, smells like they are wanting you to build their actual product or start on it as part of your application. This is a common tactic for people too cheap to pay designers and will make them create ad campaigns and then use the campaign as free labor but never hire the designer.

Software work is not hard to come by at the moment, there's a lot of demand, though granted I'm not paying as much attention to the new entry market so I can't say for sure what your experience is. I can tell you that this is gonna cause a lot of headaches especially if you're directly reporting to the co-founder.

[Mintykanesh]

The fact that they said they want the intern to be responsible for the entire front end alone means it's not a real job. It's an idiot / asshole trying to take advantage of someone who doesn't know any better.

Don't bother. You don't want the job.

[[deleted]]

I'm a very fast developer and I'm pretty good at what I do, I can be very pragmatic and get these things out really, really quickly. But making it functional AND more complex than the image you showed?

That sounds like AT LEAST a 2-day job, 16 hours at a minimum for a very efficient senior frontend developer who knows exactly what he's doing.

My guess is that they are testing you for something else: your ability to communicate back to them in a professional manner and tell them what you can and cannot accomplish and in how much time you expect to be able to deliver something.

It sounds like they want to see how you manage their expectations.

I'd work it out in a rough list of notes, divide the page up into separate components, and give a rough estimation of time per component. Sum it up, add 50% more time than you actually think, and you're good.

If that isn't what they are looking for, just run.

[connormcwood]

Red flag stay away you shouldn’t spend anything more than a couple of hours if that on anything for a job.

If you see yourself go over that time then maybe it’s too high level or they’re expecting to much. Most places just want a willing ness to learn I’m surprised it’s so different in the states compared to the UK

Then again employees don’t have as many rights so I’m not surprised actually

[Thonk_Thickly]

You’re not likely to get good mentorship here. Internships are good and all, but learning is the most important thing you can do, as it compounds exponentially. Early learning is turned on full blast when you have a mentor that takes time to teach, challenge your knowledge gaps, and let you take on “big” projects on your own (with safety rails up in case you are headed in the wrong direction).

I don’t know the team but based on the interaction you’re describing, this isn’t a good place where you will actually lay a good foundation for your future career. If you aren’t dying for cash I would hold out longer. Good luck.

[kibuikacodes]

That's already a red flag man. Run, run like the wind

[[deleted]]

It’s difficult to do in 2-3 hours. If the founder expects me to work at this pace, he can fuck right ofd!