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Adobe·Software Engineer·Take-home Assignment·Senior

Senior
May 2026

Summary

Adobe gave me a React coding task for a full-stack engineer role. It was more involved than I expected for what felt like a standard frontend exercise, mostly because of the role constraint logic and the sorting requirement that the unit tests enforced pretty strictly.

Questions Asked (1)

Q1

Build a React page that displays a player list and a team composition panel. Users can add players to their team, each player has a role with min/max constraints on how many can be added, clicking a player's name opens a detail dialog, and both lists must be sorted alphabetically by player name.

Technical Trade-offsAPI & IntegrationsSystem Design
Author's notes

The role constraint logic is where I lost the most time.

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AI HintsAI Generated

Suggested Approach

Start by clarifying requirements and constraints, then outline a component architecture with state management and data flow. Discuss how to enforce role constraints, handle sorting, and manage the dialog, while highlighting trade-offs and potential edge cases.

Pro tip: Demonstrate proactive thinking by mentioning accessibility (e.g., keyboard navigation for the dialog) and performance optimizations (e.g., memoization for sorted lists). This shows you consider real-world usability and efficiency, which is highly valued at Adobe.

1. Clarify Requirements and Constraints

Ask questions to understand the data model, role constraints, sorting specifics, and any design or technical constraints. Confirm assumptions about player data and team composition rules.

2. Design Component Architecture

Outline the main components: PlayerList, TeamPanel, PlayerDetailDialog, and a parent container. Decide on state management (e.g., useState, useReducer, or context) and how data flows between components.

3. Implement Core Features

Describe how to add players with role validation, sort lists alphabetically, and open the dialog on player name click. Discuss handling edge cases like duplicate players or exceeding role limits.

4. Address Trade-offs and Optimizations

Discuss trade-offs between different state management approaches, sorting strategies (e.g., sorting on render vs. memoized), and performance considerations. Mention accessibility and responsive design.

5. Test and Validate

Explain how you would test the functionality, including unit tests for sorting and role constraints, and integration tests for user interactions. Mention tools like React Testing Library.

Key Points to Mention

  • State management: lifting state up, using useReducer for complex state, or context for global state.
  • Role constraints: enforcing min/max with validation and disabling add buttons when limits are reached.
  • Sorting: using localeCompare for alphabetical sorting, memoizing sorted lists to avoid re-sorting on every render.
  • Dialog handling: using a modal component, managing focus and keyboard events for accessibility.
  • Performance: React.memo, useCallback, and useMemo to prevent unnecessary re-renders.
  • Testing: unit tests for utility functions, integration tests for user flows, and mocking data.

AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.