I interviewed for a backend role and the problems were greatly simplified versions of day-to-day backend SWE work. For example, use a server to complete a task. The focus was on how you make the requests and handle any edge cases that might come up, and the server was actually live so you could tinker and get immediate feedback. Hopefully that’s not too vague :)

Edit: to be clear, the interview was live with an interviewer. So it wasn’t a take home in the scheduling sense either.

I agree that take homes can be simplified with your suggestions above, and that certainly makes a better experience for the candidate. The hybrid format is also great - future interviews become an extension of your previous work, so it’s more comfortable than having to context switch for a new challenging problem each round.

I didn’t find this in your linked database, but I also enjoyed GitHub’s take home. I only recall spending 45-90 minutes on it, and the setup process was seamless. A recent blog post describes their approach here: https://github.blog/2022-03-31-how-github-does-take-home-tec...