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Show HN: Quiz that estimates your engineer level

13 points by jonathankau 8y ago

jonathankau 8y ago
Hey HN, For those of you full-time employees out there, you may have experienced a time when you weren't actually sure whether your title reflected your day-to-day performance. I wanted to build Eng Quiz because more information means more leverage, whether you're negotiating a raise or interviewing for a new role. There are tons of things to do to make this more useful, so would appreciate any feedback!
stephenr 8y ago
Is the example really indicative of output? Are American tech companies really paying people with 0-3 years experience $100K? No fucking wonder so many startups “run out of money” if you’re spending that much on people with no fucking experience.
- jonathankau 8y ago
  Hey stephenr, This is pretty common for some of the larger tech companies. While some Bay Area startups do pay a bit less in exchange for equity, it's still tough getting talent given all the competition. For startups, I think the key is to really stay as lean as possible before hiring at all.
  - Adamantcheese 8y ago
    Salary varies highly based on location and should not be a result of your quiz to determine your engineer level.
  - stephenr 8y ago
    And thus, I will repeat: this is fucking insanity.
    - tntn 8y ago
      Why? When rent/mortgage is easily upwards $35k and taxes are upwards of another $30k, that doesn't leave the employer with a ridiculous amount of money.
      - stephenr 8y ago
        Taxes are reflective of income. Less pay = less tax. Ridiculous house prices are reflective of ridiculous hiring/salary practices. Your “solution” created its own problem.
etc_host 8y ago
Question 2 of 20 Which of the following is a valid reason for why idempotence is useful in API design? A. Due to the rise of distributed systems, idempotence has become necessary in order to scale any large-scale application. B. Given the unreliability of networks, idempotence allows developers to build robust API’s that allow for retry attempts. C. Idempotence is actually not as useful in API design and is instead more useful when designing database schemas. D. Idempotence is important to prevent clients from sending multiple duplicate API requests. E. I don't know Wow, you're really going to try and estimate my level, based on opinions? No thanks. Not without a write-in option. P.S. My opinion is that, idempotence only useful, if you draw the conclusion that ceding control of your systems to external entities is useful. At which point you compromise your system based on communicated assumptions for how something should be, and not necessarily how things are behind the wall you can never see the other side of. In other words, the subtext of this question is: Do you like delegation of responsibility? The correct answer is yes. Meanwhile, this question deals in buzz-wordy jargon. The answer you may provide, cannot be presumed as correct, without proper interpretation of the dictionary definition, according to the popularity of in-group consensus, and the chaining of the awareness of other preferred buzzwords as social cues for the expectation of a proper answer.
- jonathankau 8y ago
  Hey etc_host, Thanks for taking a quick peek and sharing your thoughts. I definitely agree that there are issues with many of the questions and that the quiz overall isn't super accurate. Do you have any recommendations on how to improve this question? Or, are there are subject areas that might make sense instead?
  - kazinator 8y ago
    Drop the "I don't know". (Unless you're looking for a positive confirmation of who some of the complete morons are, which is mildly insulting.) Who in their right mind would choose a certified incorrect answer in a multiple choice exam rather than guessing among those which include the correct one? Anyone who chooses E lacks the cunning to make it in STEM.
throwawayt3g54f 8y ago
I've been teaching myself programming for the last 10 months, and it seems to think I am an SWE II. I feel as though that's a huge overestimate of my skill level.
aetherspawn 8y ago
Hmm. Doubt the accuracy. I got “senior” 170k base with a much higher number in the 200-300k range, but I haven’t even graduated uni yet. Also, I don’t write Ruby (why is this so ruby-heavy?) so I guessed all those.
chatmasta 8y ago
I find these kinds of quizzes fun, but I absolutely hate when I can't see my results at the end of it. I'm glad to know you think I should be making $225k (that would be nice), but I'd like to see the results of the quiz!! Otherwise I just wasted 10 minutes. Also, if anyone wants to pay me $225k, hmu.
mwgalloway 8y ago
The 'Start your free quiz' button currently is not working. Seems like there may have been an event handler at one point that is no longer functioning.

13 points by jonathankau 8y ago

Hey HN, For those of you full-time employees out there, you may have experienced a time when you weren't actually sure whether your title reflected your day-to-day performance. I wanted to build Eng Quiz because more information means more leverage, whether you're negotiating a raise or interviewing for a new role. There are tons of things to do to make this more useful, so would appreciate any feedback!

stephenr 8y ago

Is the example really indicative of output? Are American tech companies really paying people with 0-3 years experience $100K? No fucking wonder so many startups “run out of money” if you’re spending that much on people with no fucking experience.

jonathankau 8y ago
Hey stephenr, This is pretty common for some of the larger tech companies. While some Bay Area startups do pay a bit less in exchange for equity, it's still tough getting talent given all the competition. For startups, I think the key is to really stay as lean as possible before hiring at all.
- Adamantcheese 8y ago
  Salary varies highly based on location and should not be a result of your quiz to determine your engineer level.
- stephenr 8y ago
  And thus, I will repeat: this is fucking insanity.
  - tntn 8y ago
    Why? When rent/mortgage is easily upwards $35k and taxes are upwards of another $30k, that doesn't leave the employer with a ridiculous amount of money.
    - stephenr 8y ago
      Taxes are reflective of income. Less pay = less tax. Ridiculous house prices are reflective of ridiculous hiring/salary practices. Your “solution” created its own problem.

etc_host 8y ago

Question 2 of 20 Which of the following is a valid reason for why idempotence is useful in API design? A. Due to the rise of distributed systems, idempotence has become necessary in order to scale any large-scale application. B. Given the unreliability of networks, idempotence allows developers to build robust API’s that allow for retry attempts. C. Idempotence is actually not as useful in API design and is instead more useful when designing database schemas. D. Idempotence is important to prevent clients from sending multiple duplicate API requests. E. I don't know Wow, you're really going to try and estimate my level, based on opinions? No thanks. Not without a write-in option. P.S. My opinion is that, idempotence only useful, if you draw the conclusion that ceding control of your systems to external entities is useful. At which point you compromise your system based on communicated assumptions for how something should be, and not necessarily how things are behind the wall you can never see the other side of. In other words, the subtext of this question is: Do you like delegation of responsibility? The correct answer is yes. Meanwhile, this question deals in buzz-wordy jargon. The answer you may provide, cannot be presumed as correct, without proper interpretation of the dictionary definition, according to the popularity of in-group consensus, and the chaining of the awareness of other preferred buzzwords as social cues for the expectation of a proper answer.

jonathankau 8y ago
Hey etc_host, Thanks for taking a quick peek and sharing your thoughts. I definitely agree that there are issues with many of the questions and that the quiz overall isn't super accurate. Do you have any recommendations on how to improve this question? Or, are there are subject areas that might make sense instead?
- kazinator 8y ago
  Drop the "I don't know". (Unless you're looking for a positive confirmation of who some of the complete morons are, which is mildly insulting.) Who in their right mind would choose a certified incorrect answer in a multiple choice exam rather than guessing among those which include the correct one? Anyone who chooses E lacks the cunning to make it in STEM.

throwawayt3g54f 8y ago

I've been teaching myself programming for the last 10 months, and it seems to think I am an SWE II. I feel as though that's a huge overestimate of my skill level.

aetherspawn 8y ago

Hmm. Doubt the accuracy. I got “senior” 170k base with a much higher number in the 200-300k range, but I haven’t even graduated uni yet. Also, I don’t write Ruby (why is this so ruby-heavy?) so I guessed all those.

chatmasta 8y ago

I find these kinds of quizzes fun, but I absolutely hate when I can't see my results at the end of it. I'm glad to know you think I should be making $225k (that would be nice), but I'd like to see the results of the quiz!! Otherwise I just wasted 10 minutes. Also, if anyone wants to pay me $225k, hmu.

mwgalloway 8y ago

The 'Start your free quiz' button currently is not working. Seems like there may have been an event handler at one point that is no longer functioning.