4 ms·
Our coding problem is easier than that (by a fair margin, it's all completely synchronous single-threaded procedural code unless you're doing something extremel
by rachofsunshine 2y ago
Our coding problem is easier than that (by a fair margin, it's all completely synchronous single-threaded procedural code unless you're doing something extremely weird) and it weeds out the vast majority of applicants.
The same was true of all three of the standard coding problems Triplebyte used. They're not quite literal fizzbuzz, but they require - at best - some basic critical thinking and basic language features, and that is a filter that eliminates 90+% of applicants to dev jobs. Now, granted, this is under time pressure. I imagine, given several hours, most could finish it (although maybe even that is overestimating things). But still.
There's an old Randall Munroe article quoting a physicist:
> The physicist who mentioned this problem to me told me his rule of thumb for estimating supernova-related numbers: However big you think supernovae are, they're bigger than that.
and I feel like this applies to recruiting: however bad you think the average applicant is, they're worse than that.
- josephg 2y agoTriplebyte used to send candidates a link to a page which basically listed everything that was in the interview. Most candidates didn’t read it. They could probably have done away with the interview entirely and just put a link at the bottom of the prep material saying “click here to pass the interview”. If anything I think it would have lowered the triplebyte passing rate.
- judahmeek 2y agoWhy not try this as an experimental filter then and see what sort of population pass?
- josephg 2y agoWell, triplebyte is dead. That’s one reason not to do the experiment. Also arguably the “customer” for triplebyte was the company that eventually hires the candidate. They’re paying in part for the screening process triplebyte did. We wouldn’t have been doing our job if we skipped the interview part of the process.
- esafak 2y agoI ask candidates to implement a simple dynamic data structure, and I even describe it first, so there is nothing to memorize. It turns out many people don't know how to set up classes or data structures, even when you describe it to them first. Forget about computational complexity.