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This looks pretty awesome! Congrats on the launch. It seems like a much needed alternative to Leetcode with more practical applications. As a developer, wonderi

This looks pretty awesome! Congrats on the launch. It seems like a much needed alternative to Leetcode with more practical applications. As a developer, wondering how I can benchmark myself on your platform to see how I perform with a sample?

mwcampbell 5y ago
> wondering how I can benchmark myself on your platform to see how I perform with a sample? Reading this comment, it occurs to me that if just anyone can sign up for a trial, then candidates may be able to game the system and prepare for the specific work sample tests that this product provides. If so, then that's unfortunate, because I like the idea behind this product.
- garyjlin 5y ago
  2 thoughts here: 1) This is actually why I was going back and forth on offering a trial version, and decided to use a form so that I can qualify employers who legitimately need this vs candidates just trying to game the system 2) It might not actually matter if candidates get preliminary access to Litebulb interview code bases. Our interviews aren't brainteasers that have a specific optimal solution, they're just regular feature requests, ie build a CRUD API for this new resource model, so it almost doesn't matter how long you have. From what we've seen with submissions so far, having extra time doesn't necessarily make your code quality better. Potential idea: open source all Litebulb interview codebases?
  - jahewson 5y ago
    > open source all Litebulb interview codebases This would be such a wonderful contribution to the industry. Imagine having a hundred JS front end questions, it’s not really game-able any more. I agree with your take. Keep qualifying your leads though, for the sake of your funnel.
    - Nextgrid 5y ago
      It's "game-able" in the sense that someone could indeed learn all of those, but that's a win because it trains them for actual skills relevant to the job.
garyjlin 5y ago
Thank you! And yeah we've had that request a lot, later this year we'd like to open a candidate-facing platform to hone their skills on Litebulb interviews. Conceptually, getting better at Litebulb interviews should just make you a better dev, not better at interviewing. Potential feature: get high enough scores on a specific interview, get recommended to companies currently hiring that use this stack and get inserted mid-way through the funnel?
- beepbooptheory 5y ago
  Yes please! I have never even gotten a shot at interviews like these, its such a black box to me, and I love tests. I would honestly pay for this without even the hope of a job, just to be able to know where I am at, feel confident if I ever get past the first screen.
  - garyjlin 5y ago
    Honestly I feel you, I recall interviewing before and the number one thing I kept asking for was feedback, but rarely ever got any. Currently, when a candidate does a Litebulb interview and submits it, we email the same report PDF to the candidate that the employer gets. As in, feedback is built into the flow of the product. The next step would be to open up that candidate-facing side, and hearing that you'd pay for just that alone is great feedback!
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  Being able to pass tests in advance which then pre-qualifies you for actual, human interviews for companies who choose that particular challenge (in the future, even if they weren't hiring at the time you took the test) would be a great feature.

mwcampbell 5y ago

> wondering how I can benchmark myself on your platform to see how I perform with a sample? Reading this comment, it occurs to me that if just anyone can sign up for a trial, then candidates may be able to game the system and prepare for the specific work sample tests that this product provides. If so, then that's unfortunate, because I like the idea behind this product.

garyjlin 5y ago
2 thoughts here: 1) This is actually why I was going back and forth on offering a trial version, and decided to use a form so that I can qualify employers who legitimately need this vs candidates just trying to game the system 2) It might not actually matter if candidates get preliminary access to Litebulb interview code bases. Our interviews aren't brainteasers that have a specific optimal solution, they're just regular feature requests, ie build a CRUD API for this new resource model, so it almost doesn't matter how long you have. From what we've seen with submissions so far, having extra time doesn't necessarily make your code quality better. Potential idea: open source all Litebulb interview codebases?
- jahewson 5y ago
  > open source all Litebulb interview codebases This would be such a wonderful contribution to the industry. Imagine having a hundred JS front end questions, it’s not really game-able any more. I agree with your take. Keep qualifying your leads though, for the sake of your funnel.
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    It's "game-able" in the sense that someone could indeed learn all of those, but that's a win because it trains them for actual skills relevant to the job.

garyjlin 5y ago

Thank you! And yeah we've had that request a lot, later this year we'd like to open a candidate-facing platform to hone their skills on Litebulb interviews. Conceptually, getting better at Litebulb interviews should just make you a better dev, not better at interviewing. Potential feature: get high enough scores on a specific interview, get recommended to companies currently hiring that use this stack and get inserted mid-way through the funnel?

beepbooptheory 5y ago
Yes please! I have never even gotten a shot at interviews like these, its such a black box to me, and I love tests. I would honestly pay for this without even the hope of a job, just to be able to know where I am at, feel confident if I ever get past the first screen.
- garyjlin 5y ago
  Honestly I feel you, I recall interviewing before and the number one thing I kept asking for was feedback, but rarely ever got any. Currently, when a candidate does a Litebulb interview and submits it, we email the same report PDF to the candidate that the employer gets. As in, feedback is built into the flow of the product. The next step would be to open up that candidate-facing side, and hearing that you'd pay for just that alone is great feedback!
Nextgrid 5y ago
Being able to pass tests in advance which then pre-qualifies you for actual, human interviews for companies who choose that particular challenge (in the future, even if they weren't hiring at the time you took the test) would be a great feature.