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I hate the coding challenges because they are hugely asymmetric in effort required between interviewer and interviewee. They usually come as the first or second

by cheepin 12y ago

I hate the coding challenges because they are hugely asymmetric in effort required between interviewer and interviewee. They usually come as the first or second step (after the phone interview), which means you aren't even really being seriously considered yet. You have to spend several hours working on it while they just have to send the email to whatever their challenge link is. Best case scenario, you wasted those hours because you were qualified to do what they assigned you to, and you simply move to the 'next round'. Worst case, you get rejected for any reason or even no reason. I have seen a few done maybe correctly. They really have to either be short, or otherwise compensated. One company is paying a few hundred dollars for the result of the coding challenge if they like your result, and are using it to entirely replace the first rounds of interview (coding challenge => skip directly to onsite and collect $500). These cases seem to be outliers rather than the norm though. Thanks Jeff Atwood.

jarek 12y ago
My favourite is when the company rejects you with no feedback then asks that you do not post your code for the challenge in your portfolio
- gedrap 12y ago
  Feedback, as discussed a lot, is a dangerous thing. May start endless discussions, trying to see things as racist/sexist/whatnot, and it's meaningless as decision is already made. Most of the challenges take an hour or two, so not sure how that would benefit your portfolio. In case challenge was longer than that, well, that's a different question (accept it or not).
  - jarek 12y ago
    I've seen a YC company give a challenge that took a weekend to complete. (Relatively late in the hiring process.) It was interesting and relevant to career goals. I understand the rejection and the lack of feedback, but the do-not-publish request is infuriating. Supposedly the reason is to not give code to other candidates but the companies should be able to detect that trivially by diffing or talking about the code with the candidate. I've routinely seen coding tasks designed to take a Saturday. edit: sorry to see your post downvoted, I upvoted it

by cheepin 12y ago

jarek 12y ago

My favourite is when the company rejects you with no feedback then asks that you do not post your code for the challenge in your portfolio

gedrap 12y ago
Feedback, as discussed a lot, is a dangerous thing. May start endless discussions, trying to see things as racist/sexist/whatnot, and it's meaningless as decision is already made. Most of the challenges take an hour or two, so not sure how that would benefit your portfolio. In case challenge was longer than that, well, that's a different question (accept it or not).
- jarek 12y ago
  I've seen a YC company give a challenge that took a weekend to complete. (Relatively late in the hiring process.) It was interesting and relevant to career goals. I understand the rejection and the lack of feedback, but the do-not-publish request is infuriating. Supposedly the reason is to not give code to other candidates but the companies should be able to detect that trivially by diffing or talking about the code with the candidate. I've routinely seen coding tasks designed to take a Saturday. edit: sorry to see your post downvoted, I upvoted it