the place i used to work prided themselves on having a large puzzle collection that candidates had to suffer through before even submitting an application. i w

the place i used to work prided themselves on having a large puzzle collection that candidates had to suffer through before even submitting an application. i wanted to work there, so i put up with it, and write a fairly decent solution to a problem. took me about 10-15 hours by the time it was written and tested. "make sure it scales", said the doc. ok, async i/o and home grown select() loop it is! all this just to submit an application; no guarantees of even a phone screen. fast forward a couple months, i'm sitting in the office with my team, and the subject of the puzzle comes up -- i asked if anyone noticed anything about the one i submitted. NOBODY HAD LOOKED AT IT. HR didn't even send it over. probably the last time i'll ever do one of those. they're supposed to attract "passionate" people under the bullshit guise of "we'd like to hire the kind of people who like to do these puzzles in their spare time" -- code words for "we'd like to hire the kind of people who want to live at the office"