2 ms·

This was 100% the case for a startup I worked for 4 years ago: we actually used hackerrank and asked 3 of their questions. We realized that the people who bet

This was 100% the case for a startup I worked for 4 years ago: we actually used hackerrank and asked 3 of their questions. We realized that the people who better answered them were college kids /recent graduates who had specialised in algorithmic puzzle solving. They mainly programmed in C , but their code was way too far away of what you would like to see in a production environment. The best people for us were the ones that had spent their free time checking different technologies and doing crazy projects (like reverse engineering something, or developing a small game)

kamaal 5y ago
This is so important and most people don't realize this. Ability to build things quickly, make tools, write/rewrite stuff. All this is so much more important than memory skills, or even for that matter novel algorithm design skills(even questions that demand novel algorithms are rare in most production environments). That given, it's a shame that our interview skills are no where close to hiring people who can build anything at all. The problem is a lot of these top companies have tons of money and time, to spend doing these things. They can even end up hiring the wrong people and it wouldn't matter all that much because they have lots of money, and every once in a while a genuine contributor slips in and makes up for everyone else. Now everyone wants to do this, when they don't have the same conditions.