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I like the coding challenge we designed for hiring where I work. A few things about it that work: - It's designed to take about the same time as the round of i

by JackC 6y ago

I like the coding challenge we designed for hiring where I work. A few things about it that work: - It's designed to take about the same time as the round of interviews it replaces (half a day), and we clearly communicate how polished and complete we're expecting it to (not) be in that time. - It's a lot like the actual work; if you enjoy it / are good at it, there's a good chance you'll enjoy / be good at the job. It helps make sure (on both sides) that the job is a good fit. - But at the same time it's designed to be obviously not actually work we're going to use; we're not exploiting unpaid labor. - There aren't gotchas to it. We review it with an eye toward "if my coworker showed me something they'd been working on for about this long to address this problem statement, how would I feel about their work," and do our best to express that. - The rest of the application process takes the challenge into account in a positive way. I might have a conversation with you later to understand how you think about the problem you solved, but none of the interviews have to be gotchas or on-the-fly skills tests because I've already seen the kind of work you do. - Everyone takes the same challenge, and it feels way more fair to discuss candidates based on reviewing how they do the kind of work that we do, compared to "X person has a cool open source repo; Y person gave a good interview answer to this technical question; Z person worked at an interesting place in the past." There's still some apples to oranges in comparing coding challenges, but much less than comparing one person's bootcamp group project open source repo with another person's reason that their best code is closed source but it sounds cool. With a well-designed challenge the benefits on the hiring side are really obvious (we actually have a basis for comparing applicants that feels somewhat related to the work they're going to do), but also (I hope) we've managed to make a better process for applicants without expanding the time they're spending.

zebnyc 6y ago
a) Do you compensate folks who take these challenges. Otherwise it is half a day of unpaid labor. Also most take home tests take way longer even though they are advertised as "only a couple of hours". Do you have empirical evidence that it can be completed in the given time slot? Have you given the test to your own colleagues who may not know the background / domain knowledge / environment setup required? b) Do you make it clear what you consider as "good design"? OOP/Imperative or Functional coding style? Even in OOP, is it sufficient if the candidate just does SOLID or do they have to implement GoF patterns? This is very subjective and never made clear in these tests. c) Is there a guarantee that an actual person will review the submitted code and provide feedback? AFAIK, most companies won't give candidates any feedback / validation of submitted work
- ProZsolt 6y ago
  Not OP, just a job seeker who like coding interview. > Otherwise it is half a day of unpaid labor. The same true for an interview > Do you have empirical evidence that it can be completed in the given time slot? As a candidate once you see the specification and you think it's not worth it you can easily can say no to it. > Is there a guarantee that an actual person will review the submitted code and provide feedback? AFAIK, most companies won't give candidates any feedback / validation of submitted work That is why I only willing to do these kind of challenges once I had the first round of technical interview and I know I would like to work there
  - wakawaka1 6y ago
    > Otherwise it is half a day of unpaid labor. >> The same true for an interview Who does half day interviews? In my 3 years as a professional software dev, I've perhaps spent a cumulative 2 hours in interviews with a company. I know that some companies have extensive interviews. But they aren't as laborious as intensely grinding on a mentally challenging project in an industry such as software.
ProZsolt 6y ago
I like coding challenges, they way better (less stressful) than whiteboarding. Just don't use it as a prescreen. Interviews (should) work both ways, coding challenges only testing the candidate's abilities. I'm only willing to do them once I know I want to work at your company.

by JackC 6y ago

zebnyc 6y ago

a) Do you compensate folks who take these challenges. Otherwise it is half a day of unpaid labor. Also most take home tests take way longer even though they are advertised as "only a couple of hours". Do you have empirical evidence that it can be completed in the given time slot? Have you given the test to your own colleagues who may not know the background / domain knowledge / environment setup required? b) Do you make it clear what you consider as "good design"? OOP/Imperative or Functional coding style? Even in OOP, is it sufficient if the candidate just does SOLID or do they have to implement GoF patterns? This is very subjective and never made clear in these tests. c) Is there a guarantee that an actual person will review the submitted code and provide feedback? AFAIK, most companies won't give candidates any feedback / validation of submitted work

ProZsolt 6y ago
Not OP, just a job seeker who like coding interview. > Otherwise it is half a day of unpaid labor. The same true for an interview > Do you have empirical evidence that it can be completed in the given time slot? As a candidate once you see the specification and you think it's not worth it you can easily can say no to it. > Is there a guarantee that an actual person will review the submitted code and provide feedback? AFAIK, most companies won't give candidates any feedback / validation of submitted work That is why I only willing to do these kind of challenges once I had the first round of technical interview and I know I would like to work there
- wakawaka1 6y ago
  > Otherwise it is half a day of unpaid labor. >> The same true for an interview Who does half day interviews? In my 3 years as a professional software dev, I've perhaps spent a cumulative 2 hours in interviews with a company. I know that some companies have extensive interviews. But they aren't as laborious as intensely grinding on a mentally challenging project in an industry such as software.

ProZsolt 6y ago

I like coding challenges, they way better (less stressful) than whiteboarding. Just don't use it as a prescreen. Interviews (should) work both ways, coding challenges only testing the candidate's abilities. I'm only willing to do them once I know I want to work at your company.