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Amazon Code Ninjas
- TN1ck 13y agoI can't get my Clojure-solution to run there. Anybody knows what's up? (ns solution (:gen-class)) (defn -main ...) There is also no Clojure-example :/ EDIT: Fixed it: You had execute the function, just added (-main)
- ojbyrne 13y agoOh god. Don't they realize that "ninjas" was replaced by "badasses" around 2011, officially supplanting "rockstars" (which first appeared in 2009). There is no indication of what language is expected, but presumably it's java, because companies that do this shit, are entirely java. I feel the urge to click on the button, but I've been doing Dan Grossman's Programming Language MOOC (https://www.coursera.org/course/proglang https://www.coursera.org/course/proglang) lately, so I'm all about functional programming languages, which I suspect this particular programming test does not grok.. and the button looks like it's entirely about product managers and their conception of what programmers do. Which rhymes with "fuck you."
- thejosh 13y agoWhat about Jedi?
- morgante 13y agoThey're actually using InterviewStreet to do the testing, which supports a variety of languages (including a number of functional ones).
- nichochar 13y agoWow, it's not that cool to just be a hater and see yourself as a 'sick' engineer that doesn't have time for PM's bull... This is actually a pretty cool exercise, and for someone like me, coming out of school and practicing algorithm interview questions (which are questionable, but hey), this is helpful and fun. Anyways, if all you want to do is say that you are cool because you're learning a functional language and are completely above java, do it in your head.
- seunosewa 13y agoWhoosh!
- Lewton 13y agoNo Racket, no ML But Haskell, Clojure, Scala, Erlang, Common Lisp... Very far from "just Java"
- yitchelle 13y agoNo wait, the real heroes are the Purple Squirrel. http://india.amazon.com/SeniorEngineers.html http://india.amazon.com/SeniorEngineers.html
- AsymetricCom 13y agoNo, they want people who go in silently, fix something and leave the same way. Thus, Ninja.
- kylemaxwell 13y agoI'll take "Shit HN Says" for $500, Alex...
- ghostdiver 13y agoHow many of those tasks represent some real-world problem?
- twic 13y agoAll of them. This is the back-end of Mechanical Turk.
- mkohlmyr 13y agoHah, would it not be fab if someone combined an elance type service for small programming tasks with a technical recruitment tool for programmers. Get applicants to write code for company X in order to get hired by company Y.
- BenderV 13y agoLeaderbords : https://amazon.interviewstreet.com/challenges/dashboard/#leaderboard/default/1 https://amazon.interviewstreet.com/challenges/dashboard/#lea... India, India, India, India, India, India, India, Germany, India, India, India... There is, without doubt a great pool of talents available in India, but this kind of result make me suspect that it's maybe just a result of India' schools focus on algorithms. Not on real problem solving, creation, design...
- thejosh 13y agoOr you know, timezone?
- morgante 13y agoOr that the link is for Amazon India. Techniques like this are only really used to sort through hiring pools with high signal:noise.
- CognitiveLens 13y ago* low signal:noise
- twic 13y agoThis is on the india.amazon.com site. I can't immediately find it on non-Indian sites. It appears this is aimed at recruiting Indian programmers. It is not surprising most of the people on the leaderboard are Indian. No idea how Herr Amtrix got on that leaderboard.
- lpolovets 13y agoOh man, so many spelling/grammar/formatting issues on this site! For example: - "A segment is said to be shorter than other if it contains less number of words." - "Print first shortest sub-segment that contains given k words , ignore special characters, numbers." Copy editing like this doesn't inspire confidence in the hiring process.
- morgante 13y agoIt is Amazon India, after all.
- hkmurakami 13y agoWait. Does the "code ninjas" idiom actually appeal to programmers in India?
- narsil 13y agoAs much as it appeals to programmers in the United States. No reason it wouldn't.
- dspillett 13y agoIt might not so much be that is appeals, just that it doesn't make them feel as silly as it would some over here. I get called a code ninja but only as a joke as I tend to wear black[1] coloured everything at work[2]. In my experience with Indian companies and people of Indian heritage over here, titles seem more important to them generally than to other people I've interacted with. Perhaps due to differences in exposure to certain cultural references "ninja" sounds to them like an exotic title rather than, as it sounds to may of us, a silly one. Having said that, I know people who would appreciate "ninja" in their job title so this is subjective at a more local level too. [1] Yep, I know there is no evidence a ninja ever wore black, in fact their outfits may have been very colourful: the black stereotype we have comes from how stealth actions were portrayed in stage plays. [2] I'd prefer a Cash reference but you can't really chose your own nick-names, maybe nipping to Rino and shooting a man would help... Of course it might not appeal to programmers in India any more than it does to you - it could just be that is appeals to PHBs in India!
- lazyjones 13y agoIt's interesting that Amazon uses "off-the-shelf" interviewing infrastructure instead of having their own (Interview Street). Can anyone determine whether the 4 challenges posted by Amazon are custom-made by them or selected from Interview Street's library?
- aeon10 13y agoIn real job interviews are these skills more valued than real experience with real technologies? I mean worked with different languages and frameworks on different problems? or as a graduate having good algorithmic skills is far more important than those? As a student who will soon graduate this is a real dilemma. Do i learn and practice more algorithmic problems to get better at that side, or learn and work with as many technologies I can to get some 'real world' experience.
- jtseng 13y agoFrom the interviews I've done so far, the algorithm questions are more important. From our perspective, it's much easier for someone good with algorithms to learn a few technologies than for someone with a few technologies to learn algorithms. Plus, you're going to need to take some time to familiarize yourself with our software system anyway. It doesn't matter too much to us if you take two months to ramp up or 3. This just seems like a better way to evaluate candidates even though we rarely have difficult algorithmic problem in our daily work.
- aeon10 13y agoSo to make my chances in the future better, it would be better for to spend time on sites like topcoder honing on my algorithmic skills rather than say, experimenting with nodejs. Or does this depend on the company/job I am applying to?
- namelezz 13y agoThe truth is no one knows how to find or be a good software engineer.
- keslert 13y agoIt's interesting, but your chances of getting a job are very dependent on how well you perform during the 30 minutes they throw small algorithmic questions at you. This isn't to say that alone will get you a job, but if you bomb that part of the interview, it's basically over.
- 13y ago
- maxent 13y agoShot across the bow of IBM, SAP, Oracle, etc? Amazon and Google continue trying to eat everything. Edit: and yes I know Amazon is already at full war with IBM, etc since before the CIA contract.
- Pitarou 13y agoIt beats fizzbuzz, but "write an implementation of Warshall's and Euclid's algorithms" isn't exactly l33t Ninja skillz. I'd be much more impressed by a candidate who could figure out for themselves which algorithm a problem required.
- saosebastiao 13y agoFor those who are wondering why algorithms are so prominent, I'd answer that at Amazon, algorithms are prominent. With the service oriented architecture, it is not uncommon for a team to own a service that is basically a context-specialized implementation of an algorthm, with a little bit of ceremony to serve it up. The code ninjas program has been around for a long time, and it was probably named by an HR goon, so you'll have to forgive the cliche.
- codex 13y agoWhen I interviewed at Amazon most of the teams I spoke to revolved around billing and logistics--which of course do require some algorithmics, but are also fantastically boring. Has the situation improved?
- AsymetricCom 13y agoCan someone explain this thread to me? What exactly do you think programmers do? Yes.. algorithms are important.
- jmduke 13y agoTo each their own. I think logistics are awesome, and to describe them as requiring 'some algorithmics' is sort of dismissive; this is a field where formulating a 1% improvement over a previous system translates into literally millions of dollars saved annually -- it's hard for me to imagine a field that is as 'pure' as that while still having enormous financial impact (besides maybe HFT?) (Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but on the Kindle side of things.)
- ars_technician 13y ago>- it's hard for me to imagine a field that is as 'pure' as that while still having enormous financial impact Advertising algorithms, recommendation algorithms, pricing algorithms, basically any algorithm that is being run at scale for millions of customers.
- saosebastiao 13y ago
- nilsimsa 13y agoAnd here I ask candidates to code a simple problem like "traverse a binary tree in-order" and they treat it like it is a major stumper I'm asking them.
- ttty 13y agono js
- ecaron 13y agoI feel like "If you're not interested in moving to Seattle, don't waste your time here" would be a nice header at the top of the pages...
- j_baker 13y agoIs moving to Seattle a requirement? I'd imagine Amazon has more offices than just that.
- pmiller2 13y agoSeattle is the only place in the US listed with open positions.
- calvin 13y agoAmazon is hiring for software developers and many other positions in locations throughout the United States and other parts of the world. See: http://www.amazon.com/gp/jobs/ref=j_sq_btn?jobSearchKeywords=&category=Software+Development&location=*&x=54&y=7 http://www.amazon.com/gp/jobs/ref=j_sq_btn?jobSearchKeywords... I currently see positions listed for Seattle, Massachusetts, California, and international positions on the first page of Software Development listings. (Note: I work for Amazon as a Web Development Engineer.)
- pmiller2 13y agoGood to know. I only checked the link on the page that said "Which position are these challenges for." Do they need any "code ninjas" in the Bay area? ;)
- rgbrgb 13y agoDefinitely not a requirement for working at Amazon, though I can't say whether this particular thing is only for Seattle positions. I work for Amazon Music in downtown San Francisco and we are hiring.
- 13y ago
- runamok 13y agoSimilar to https://facebook.interviewstreet.com/recruit/challenges/.. https://facebook.interviewstreet.com/recruit/challenges/...