How do I prepare for an interview that includes a short written exercise?

Practice the decisions the task may require, not a guessed interview question. Choose a short task relevant to the kind of work—for example, writing a customer reply or summarizing notes. These are practice formats, not predictions about the interview.

Use a made-up prompt or material that contains no confidential information. Before drafting, identify the requested output, its audience, its purpose, and any constraints such as length or tone. Then write one sentence describing what your response needs to accomplish.

For example: “Write a short update to a teammate explaining that a draft is delayed, what is still needed, and when you will follow up.” Practicing how to read and respond to a prompt is more useful than trying to predict its exact wording.

Use a flexible split rather than memorizing a fixed schedule. For a 20-minute practice, try 3 minutes to interpret the prompt, 3 to outline, 11 to draft, and 3 to review. For a shorter exercise, scale down the stages while keeping some review time.

Adjust after each practice. If you miss requirements, spend longer understanding the prompt; if you leave the draft unfinished, make the outline shorter. During planning, note only the reader, the main point, required details, and a simple order. For the sample update, that might be: “teammate; explain delay; identify missing review; give follow-up time.”

Follow any time limit you are given. If none is specified, ask the organizer if appropriate, or practice with different short limits so you can adapt.

Ask whether the missing detail would substantially change your response. If questions are allowed, ask one concise clarification. If they are not, or time is tight, state a modest assumption and continue—for example, “Assuming this update is for an internal teammate…” Don’t invent facts to make the response sound complete.

When a task provides material, rely on it and distinguish what it says from what you infer. Leave out unsupported details or flag them as something to confirm. In practice, try one prompt with enough information and one with a small ambiguity. Then check whether your assumption was visible, relevant, and easy to correct.

Try this routine with a short prompt and, if known, the expected time limit:

1. Read for the deliverable and audience, then check constraints and required points.
2. Write a one-line purpose and a compact outline in a reader-friendly order.
3. Draft directly. Include necessary details and skip background that does not serve the prompt.
4. Use the remaining time to check completeness, organization, and sentence-level errors. If time is very short, fix missing requirements and confusing sentences before polishing style.
5. After practice, note one thing that worked and one adjustment for next time.

A possible response to the sample prompt is: “The draft is delayed while I wait for the final review. I’ll send the completed version by Thursday afternoon. If that timing creates a problem, please let me know so we can discuss priorities.” Treat this only as an example: the actual task may require different facts, tone, or format. Follow its instructions over your practice habits.