Ask HN: Part 1: Good 'take-home' test substitute for high-end dev jobs in SV

Lot of companies are doing 'take-home' tests these days. It's a great way to see what a candidate will do, but they're time-consuming in the aggregate. I've got to be really interested in the job, but it's hard to tell because you're usually asked to do it before coming in for an interview. Any suggestions on a demo project that hits many areas of interest for a full-stack web developer? Massive bonus points if it would help out some community. Some skills I've seen enough that they probably matter: - Front end javascript graphical challenges. - Back end parse an api stuff - Testing / Specs - Algorithms (Binary search trees seem to be popular) - SQL - demonstrating knowledge of how to do various joins, in particular.<p>The sky's the limit really, so long as the skill is marketable. I'd love to use this as an opportunity to learn/give back, rather than just show-off. :)<p>2.What suggestions do you have to pack June 23-28th as solidly as possible along the lines of networking/meeting people, interviews, hack-nights, etc? Here's what I've looked at so far: - angellist - indeed - glassdoor - linkedin - http://startupdigest.com/silicon-valley - a recruiter