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I was thinking, wouldn't it be fairer to do the test in an online code sandbox where being able to build and install isn't an issue? Then I thought, isn't letti

I was thinking, wouldn't it be fairer to do the test in an online code sandbox where being able to build and install isn't an issue? Then I thought, isn't letting the candidate use their own machine and debugging tools about as biased as hiring a limo driver based on how fast they can drive their own car? It does tell you who's a real "car guy" or "Unix guy", it just has a slight disparate impact by screening for people with money and hobbies. I mean, I think you should be allowed to hire these people because they will be better at the job, but hopefully they could also show that in a sandbox test.

singleshot_ 2y ago
Decent product idea? I’ll stay tuned for your Show HN.
dingnuts 2y ago
your job doesn't let you configure your own environment and tools?
ElectricSpoon 2y ago
I find editors to be deeply personal things. Throw a vim user in vscode and you might be disappointed, and vice-versa. I don't care about your tools, I care that the sum of you and your tools make you good. I think the good middle ground is having both a canned environment and allowing candidates to use their own... Unless the job is about debugging production systems where only vi is available, in which case that interview might as well represent the actual job.
rtpg 2y ago
We would run stuff in repl.it, you get the shared codespace and also don't waste time on the ops issues (which are maybe interesting and you really want devs to be able to handle but also entirely incidental complexity for most devs). In abstract I think it's great to have people use tools their comfortable with, but I dislike dinging people because they write good code but are not good at unborking Python venvs (less of a problem now) (yes you can be a good programmer and still lose time on dumb environment stuff)
ibash 2y ago
yikes. any time I'm asked to use a sandbox I ask if I can copy/paste to my own editor and share the screen. Otherwise I'm easily 4-5 slower and can't think as clearly because of errant keystrokes.
jez 2y ago
I think there's the chance to do both! Some candidates will not have problems installing dependencies and want to use their own tools. Other candidates will want to not have to think about their environment. Providing an online code sandbox doesn't preclude allowing candidates to do it on their own laptop!
kenschu 2y ago
This is exactly what we've built! We take in these bug-squash/Github based repos, serve them in VScode Web/Jetbrains/etc, and give you instant results Email is in profile if anyone's curious to see it live

singleshot_ 2y ago

Decent product idea? I’ll stay tuned for your Show HN.

dingnuts 2y ago

your job doesn't let you configure your own environment and tools?

ElectricSpoon 2y ago

I find editors to be deeply personal things. Throw a vim user in vscode and you might be disappointed, and vice-versa. I don't care about your tools, I care that the sum of you and your tools make you good. I think the good middle ground is having both a canned environment and allowing candidates to use their own... Unless the job is about debugging production systems where only vi is available, in which case that interview might as well represent the actual job.

rtpg 2y ago

We would run stuff in repl.it, you get the shared codespace and also don't waste time on the ops issues (which are maybe interesting and you really want devs to be able to handle but also entirely incidental complexity for most devs). In abstract I think it's great to have people use tools their comfortable with, but I dislike dinging people because they write good code but are not good at unborking Python venvs (less of a problem now) (yes you can be a good programmer and still lose time on dumb environment stuff)

ibash 2y ago

yikes. any time I'm asked to use a sandbox I ask if I can copy/paste to my own editor and share the screen. Otherwise I'm easily 4-5 slower and can't think as clearly because of errant keystrokes.

jez 2y ago

I think there's the chance to do both! Some candidates will not have problems installing dependencies and want to use their own tools. Other candidates will want to not have to think about their environment. Providing an online code sandbox doesn't preclude allowing candidates to do it on their own laptop!

kenschu 2y ago

This is exactly what we've built! We take in these bug-squash/Github based repos, serve them in VScode Web/Jetbrains/etc, and give you instant results Email is in profile if anyone's curious to see it live