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Design Exercise
Synonyms: design challenge, whiteboard challenge, take-home assignment, design test, app critique
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Definition
A design exercise is a short design problem given during a UX hiring process. The candidate works through a prompt, such as "design a parking app for a busy downtown," live or at home.
It comes in 3 common formats: a live whiteboard challenge, a take-home assignment, or an app critique of an existing product. Interviewers typically evaluate how the candidate frames the problem, makes decisions, and explains tradeoffs.
Use cases
A badly run exercise wastes hours on both sides and tells the hiring team little.
- Jumping to screens: A candidate starts sketching in minute 2, skips the user and goal, and can't explain why the design fits.
- Spec work: A company asks for a redesign of its own checkout. The candidate spends 12 unpaid hours on work the company can potentially ship.
- Take-home creep: The brief says "2 to 3 hours," but candidates who want the job spend 15. The process starts rewarding available free time rather than design ability.
How it's used in practice
- Clarify first. Spend the first 5 to 10 minutes identifying the user, the main goal, constraints, and what's in scope.
- Narrate decisions. Explain why you chose one idea over another and what you would test.
- Sketch only the key flow. Draw the 2 or 3 screens needed to communicate the solution rather than polishing every detail.
- Close with metrics. Name how you'd know the design worked, such as task completion or error rate.
- For hiring teams: Use a fictional product, cap the time, share the evaluation criteria, and pay for take-homes that require substantial work.
Ask how the exercise will be evaluated before you start. It helps you spend your limited time on what matters.
Challenges & limitations
- Pressure distorts performance: Live exercises can favor candidates who think well while speaking and disadvantage people who need more time to process ideas.
- Artificial conditions: Candidates work without research or real-world data, so the exercise measures how they reason under constraints rather than how they would perform a complete product design process.
- AI-assisted take-homes: Generated mockups make polished visual output easier to produce. Some teams add a live follow-up to evaluate whether the candidate can explain the decisions behind the work.
Free resources
- UX Playbook: Nailing the Whiteboard Design Challenge — step-by-step tips for framing the problem, sketching key screens, and summarizing your story
- UX Beginner: How to Prepare for UX Interview Design Challenges — practice drills, scoping tips, and how to talk through decisions
- UX Design Institute: 19 Whiteboard and Take-Home Design Challenges — practice prompts plus the difference between live and take-home formats
