A useful hiring work sample mirrors an important part of the job within a clearly stated scope. Define the skill, task, resources, expected effort, and assessment criteria before inviting candidates to participate.
The exercise should generate hiring evidence. It should not create production work for your company.
Choose one important activity
OPM's work-sample guidance emphasizes tasks similar to the job and competencies expected on entry. Use that distinction to avoid testing knowledge you intend to teach during onboarding.
Choose an activity such as diagnosing a small software issue, conducting a discovery conversation, or prioritizing a fictional customer request. Do not combine an entire job into one assignment.
Write the exercise brief
| Field | What the candidate should know |
|---|---|
| Purpose | The responsibility being assessed |
| Scenario | A fictional or appropriately sanitized context |
| Deliverable | The specific output expected |
| Boundaries | What is outside scope |
| Resources | Allowed tools, reference material, and support |
| Effort | The expected time commitment |
| Evaluation | The dimensions used to review the work |
If substantial effort is necessary, consider compensating candidates and agree on terms in advance. Better still, first ask whether a smaller exercise could answer the hiring question.
Test the task internally
Have someone familiar with the role complete it under the intended conditions. Check that the instructions are sufficient and the effort is realistic.
Remove hidden requirements and incidental difficulty. If setup consumes most of the session, the exercise may be measuring environment troubleshooting rather than the intended skill.
Provide a way to discuss access needs or scheduling constraints before the session.
Add a reflection discussion
Ask the candidate to explain their choices, alternatives, verification, and unfinished work. This helps distinguish a polished artifact from understanding.
Illustrative exercise: A fictional engineer improves input handling in a small application, then explains a failure case they did not have time to implement. The evaluator can assess prioritization and reasoning alongside the code.
If AI tools are allowed, state that explicitly and use the AI-assisted coding interview guide.
Score the intended skill
Do not let presentation polish dominate an exercise intended to assess diagnosis. Use the same criteria and conditions for comparable candidates, and record material interruptions.
Treat the sample as one piece of evidence. Combine it with relevant experience and role alignment rather than claiming it predicts every aspect of performance.
Use an anchored scorecard to explain what the observed work supports.