Web3 Developer Take-Home Assignments

You've successfully passed the initial screening call for a Web3 developer role. The next step typically involves a take-home assignment. This assignment is important for the interview process, allowing companies to evaluate your practical coding skills, attention to detail, and ability to work autonomously.

These assignments differ from abstract algorithm challenges; they mimic actual tasks you'll encounter in the role. Completing the assignment effectively can significantly enhance your chances of advancing to the final interview round. This article outlines the most common types of take-home projects anticipated for smart contract and full-stack Web3 roles.

Purpose of Take-Home Assignments

• Skill Assessment: Companies want to observe how you create a functional project from inception to completion.
• Code Evaluation: These assignments provide insight into your coding style, documentation practices, and, critically, your testing approach.
• Security Focus: For smart contract roles, firms seek evidence that you prioritize secure coding practices.

Pro Tip: A project that includes thorough documentation and a strong test suite will shine. Ensure you write tests.

Common Smart Contract Developer Assignments

These tasks evaluate your knowledge of Solidity and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

1. Develop a Staking Contract:

• Task Overview: Create a contract enabling users to deposit an ERC-20 token and earn rewards in the same token over a specified period.
• Assessment Focus: This project tests your grasp of fundamental DeFi concepts, token interactions (ERC-20), and state management.
• Advanced Features: Enhance the project by implementing a variable reward rate or adding a compounding rewards feature. Write extensive tests for deposits, withdrawals, and reward calculations.

1. Create a Simple On-Chain Auction:

• Task Overview: Write a contract for auctioning an NFT. The auction could follow English (ascending price) or Dutch (descending price) formats.
• Assessment Focus: This assignment assesses your skills in managing time-based logic, handling bids from multiple users, and securely transferring both ETH and NFTs.
• Advanced Features: Optimize gas usage and implement safeguards against common vulnerabilities such as reentrancy attacks.

1. Identify Security Vulnerabilities:

• Task Overview: Review a provided piece of Solidity code that contains security flaws. Your responsibility is to identify these issues, explain their risks, and present a corrected, secure version of the code.
• Assessment Focus: This task evaluates your security awareness and familiarity with common attack vectors, including reentrancy and integer overflows.
• Advanced Features: Develop a test case using Foundry or Hardhat that exploits the vulnerability in the original code, and demonstrate that the same test fails against your corrected code.

Common Full-Stack Web3 Developer Assignments

These projects assess your ability to integrate front-end applications with smart contracts.

1. Create a "Wallet Dashboard" Frontend:

• Task Overview: Build a simple React/Next.js application that allows users to connect their wallets. The application should display the user's ETH balance and balances of major ERC-20 tokens.
• Assessment Focus: This project tests your skills with frontend frameworks and your ability to use libraries like Ethers.js or Viem for blockchain data retrieval.
• Advanced Features: Implement a transaction history viewer or a simple ETH transfer interface. Ensure the UI is clean, responsive, and effectively handles various wallet connection states (loading, errors, network issues).

1. Develop an Interface for an Existing Protocol:

• Task Overview: You will receive the address of a smart contract deployed on a testnet (for example, a basic lending protocol). Your task is to create a frontend that enables users to interact with its key functions (e.g., deposit collateral, borrow, repay).
• Assessment Focus: This assignment evaluates your ability to comprehend an existing contract's ABI (Application Binary Interface) and create a user-friendly interface.
• Advanced Features: Provide clear and informative UI text explaining each function. Incorporate input validation and helpful error messages.

Tips for Success

• Follow Instructions: Adhere to the provided guidelines precisely.
• Craft an Impressive README: Include a detailed README.md with your submission. Discuss your design choices, any trade-offs, and provide straightforward setup and execution instructions.
• Avoid Over-Engineering: Focus on delivering clean, correct, and well-tested code that adheres to the requirements without unnecessary complexity.

Preparing for these typical scenarios will equip you to tackle your next Web3 take-home assignment with confidence and demonstrate the skills that can lead to a successful hiring outcome.