5 ms·

Could be a sneaky recruiting trick. Stuff like this has happened before: https://www.vox.com/2015/8/26/11618060/puzzles-are-fun-search-on-google-admits-secret-

Could be a sneaky recruiting trick. Stuff like this has happened before: https://www.vox.com/2015/8/26/11618060/puzzles-are-fun-search-on-google-admits-secret-recruiting-tool-in https://www.vox.com/2015/8/26/11618060/puzzles-are-fun-searc... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8588080 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8588080

sva_ 3y ago
Caught me by surprise when I first saw that black box emerge while doing a search.
- sambaumann 3y ago
  I saw it last year while I was doing a project for school - and clicked off the page as it was appearing. Never seen it again.
xattt 3y ago
Yes, and the Mastadon post came up because it was too obscure.
tripdout 3y ago
I got a Google Foobar challenge back in 2022. Never ended up completing more than the first level, but would be interesting to know if they're still using it for hiring.
- kadoban 3y ago
  Last I heard they'd stopped it. The site still seems to exist though, maybe it came back. The last problem on mine was really interesting, took me days. I wonder if there's a list of the problems somewhere, I thought I remember hearing that they weren't all the same. I never did continue with the recruiting part of it, just had some fun.
  - saagarjha 3y ago
    The team behind it still exists.
  - widforss 3y ago
    I loved that puzzle site. I don't think I have ever been as hooked by programming as when I worked on those puzzles. Managed to get thrown out after completing level 5 by requesting another puzzle and forgetting about it. I even sent a support ticket begging to be let in again. If someone at the team sees this, I'd appreciate it :) The last level for me was to write a function that evaluated sum([floor(i*sqrt(2)) for i in range(1,n+1)]) for 0 < n < 10**100. It was the first time I ever had use for my Knuth books. It was quite detrimental to work performance though. Never heard from a recruiter, but I guess they don't employ developers in Norway.
  - a1o 3y ago
    I got the website three months ago, I just did the first puzzle and then stopped because I had to make way too many exercises for the classes I was taking and never entered the second challenge in.

sva_ 3y ago

Caught me by surprise when I first saw that black box emerge while doing a search.

sambaumann 3y ago
I saw it last year while I was doing a project for school - and clicked off the page as it was appearing. Never seen it again.

xattt 3y ago

Yes, and the Mastadon post came up because it was too obscure.

tripdout 3y ago

I got a Google Foobar challenge back in 2022. Never ended up completing more than the first level, but would be interesting to know if they're still using it for hiring.

kadoban 3y ago
Last I heard they'd stopped it. The site still seems to exist though, maybe it came back. The last problem on mine was really interesting, took me days. I wonder if there's a list of the problems somewhere, I thought I remember hearing that they weren't all the same. I never did continue with the recruiting part of it, just had some fun.
- saagarjha 3y ago
  The team behind it still exists.
- widforss 3y ago
  I loved that puzzle site. I don't think I have ever been as hooked by programming as when I worked on those puzzles. Managed to get thrown out after completing level 5 by requesting another puzzle and forgetting about it. I even sent a support ticket begging to be let in again. If someone at the team sees this, I'd appreciate it :) The last level for me was to write a function that evaluated sum([floor(i*sqrt(2)) for i in range(1,n+1)]) for 0 < n < 10**100. It was the first time I ever had use for my Knuth books. It was quite detrimental to work performance though. Never heard from a recruiter, but I guess they don't employ developers in Norway.
- a1o 3y ago
  I got the website three months ago, I just did the first puzzle and then stopped because I had to make way too many exercises for the classes I was taking and never entered the second challenge in.