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Flame war ahead... I want you to bear in mind that this depends highly in the number of open positions per language/technology and the number of candidates per

Flame war ahead... I want you to bear in mind that this depends highly in the number of open positions per language/technology and the number of candidates per position. Does it mean I suck if I do Java in Eclipse compare to someone who does Ruby in Vim? Maybe they have 1 java position for 1000 java developers and 100 Ruby positions for 500 Ruby developers. So basically this article says nothing. It needs more information to be relevant.

bitwize 9y ago
That stuck out to me too. The "ideal coder" uses a Mac, Ruby, and vim -- pretty much a snapshot of the stereotypical Bay Area startup hipster. It could be that that's what they -- or their clients -- are selecting for.
compumike 9y ago
(Article author here -- I'm one of the interviewers here as well.) Our technical interview is really designed to look for your strengths, such as being productive while writing clean, correct code in any language/environment of your choice. If you do well at that (or excel in other sections of the interview such as system design or knowledge questions), we're going to work with you as a candidate, regardless of the language you choose to interview in.
- jorgemf 9y ago
  Still is irrelevant. If you have 1 java position and 10000 Ruby positions, you are going to interview more Ruby developers, your data is going to match more closely the reality. For the 1 java position you are going to be more picky and discard more candidates. But even with the same number of candidates and positions your test are going to have bias, how do you know the java test is as difficult as the ruby test, it could be more or less difficult. You can do a proper analysis fixing some of the variables. For example you can fix the language and compare how the different editors affect the selection process. But still you have to show other variables as the years of experience in the language. And finally you have outlayers like who did an interview with you but was discarded because of living in a different country. But I guess I might have enter into the statistics.
in_cahoots 9y ago
Another (uncharitable) perspective: if we assume that the overall hiring rates are relatively constant across language, then maybe they're actively selecting against good Java developers. Or perhaps Java applicants to Triplebyte are less qualified than other applicants. Either way, I know that if I were a Java developer I think I'd do better applying on my own.
Bedon292 9y ago
The initial interview pass rate doesn't not relate to the number of open positions. It is how many people they are willing to try and find open positions for. Not getting a final offer from a company does not affect the rate of passing the Technical Interview. But I do agree that the on site success rates are affected by number of candidates per position.
- jorgemf 9y ago
  There are more byas. The test difficulty is different per language, the years of experience, etc. You cannot extract any conclusions from this article.

bitwize 9y ago

That stuck out to me too. The "ideal coder" uses a Mac, Ruby, and vim -- pretty much a snapshot of the stereotypical Bay Area startup hipster. It could be that that's what they -- or their clients -- are selecting for.

compumike 9y ago

(Article author here -- I'm one of the interviewers here as well.) Our technical interview is really designed to look for your strengths, such as being productive while writing clean, correct code in any language/environment of your choice. If you do well at that (or excel in other sections of the interview such as system design or knowledge questions), we're going to work with you as a candidate, regardless of the language you choose to interview in.

jorgemf 9y ago
Still is irrelevant. If you have 1 java position and 10000 Ruby positions, you are going to interview more Ruby developers, your data is going to match more closely the reality. For the 1 java position you are going to be more picky and discard more candidates. But even with the same number of candidates and positions your test are going to have bias, how do you know the java test is as difficult as the ruby test, it could be more or less difficult. You can do a proper analysis fixing some of the variables. For example you can fix the language and compare how the different editors affect the selection process. But still you have to show other variables as the years of experience in the language. And finally you have outlayers like who did an interview with you but was discarded because of living in a different country. But I guess I might have enter into the statistics.

in_cahoots 9y ago

Another (uncharitable) perspective: if we assume that the overall hiring rates are relatively constant across language, then maybe they're actively selecting against good Java developers. Or perhaps Java applicants to Triplebyte are less qualified than other applicants. Either way, I know that if I were a Java developer I think I'd do better applying on my own.

Bedon292 9y ago

The initial interview pass rate doesn't not relate to the number of open positions. It is how many people they are willing to try and find open positions for. Not getting a final offer from a company does not affect the rate of passing the Technical Interview. But I do agree that the on site success rates are affected by number of candidates per position.

jorgemf 9y ago
There are more byas. The test difficulty is different per language, the years of experience, etc. You cannot extract any conclusions from this article.