"demanding but rewarding" is a correct and usable phrase in written English. It is often used to describe a challenging task or experience which yields a satisfying outcome. For example, "Working late nights to complete this project has been demanding but rewarding in the end.".
COLOSSAL YOUTH Pedro Costa's demanding but rewarding drama, set in Lisbon's dilapidated Cape Verdean ghetto as it undergoes urban renewal, lends epic grandeur to a scruffy milieu.
Demanding but rewarding, it offers vistas of beaches, sea stacks, rocky headlands and rain forests and is open from May through September.
Some of our reforms will be challenging to the profession and I make no apology for that; social work, as the new Frontline recruits are finding out, is one of the most demanding – but rewarding – careers on offer.
Her work is demanding, but it is rewarding out of all proportion with its demands.
The goal is to seek purification by trudging round the mountain on a route that is physically demanding but brings spiritual reward.
Rehabilitation sessions at the gym started about eight weeks after my heart attack and not only proved to be physically demanding and rewarding (no stopping for at least 50 minutes) but also helped to rebuild my slightly flagging confidence.
This is music to analyze, or not, as it washes over you, both demanding and rewarding your patience.
Being a terminologist, I care about word choice. Ludwig simply helps me pick the best words for any translation. Five stars!
Maria Pia Montoro
Terminologist and Q/A Analyst @ Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union