> The problem is when me getting the job depends on solving a coding puzzle. I have worked somewhere that we used online coding as part of our hiring process a

> The problem is when me getting the job depends on solving a coding puzzle. I have worked somewhere that we used online coding as part of our hiring process and it was valuable, but I agree that it's terrible as a gate. We used it because recruiters seemed to keep sending us people who can't write software, and it's just soul-destroying to sit down and interview people who are completely unable to do the job and had just sort of hoped we wouldn't check. My favourite interview though was somebody whose coding was excellent, and I spent the interview trying to figure out whether she's acting the way she is because she's terrified, or because she's incompetent. Turns out she was terrified, she's Russian and our interview was her first time using English, a language she'd learned in the classroom, in real life -- and she'd only been in the country for about one day. The reason I cared is, humans can't stay terrified for a prolonged period. No matter what's happening, even if it initially causes blind panic after not long they adjust to it. So if she was terrified that'll wear off after we hire her, which we did.