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Ask HN: Do you refuse to do coding challenges for software engineer interviews?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you refuse to do coding challenges for software engineer interviews?

#3
Generally yes. I do this 10-12 hours per day, and I'm tired at night. Also, somebody once asked me to write a video game in 2-3 hours on a laptop that I'd never used. I did it, but they didn't really have a position. Was a huge waste of time-unless they've invested in the relationship, it feels exploitative

Re: Ask HN: Do you refuse to do coding challenges for software engineer interviews?

#5
post #4

If it's something reasonable, I don't mind it at all. My GitHub profile is pretty sparse as everything I write is for work. A 30-60 minute skills check is nbd, especially if it's used to understand how I approach problems.

Does leetcode count as skill check?

Re: Ask HN: Do you refuse to do coding challenges for software engineer interviews?

#7
No, I lean in the opposite direction - I would be more inclined towards employment opportunities which have a reasonable coding challenge as part of the hiring process. In my experience, there is a strong correlation between how technically challenging the hiring process is and how good a place is to work as an engineer. A reasonable coding challenge is a signal that there are competent engineers within the organization (in order to be able to come up with and mark such challenges), and that the organization values engineering capability to some degree.

Of course, there are exceptions to this. I'm also explicitly excluding here employers who outsource the technical challenge to a third party like leetcode.

Re: Ask HN: Do you refuse to do coding challenges for software engineer interviews?

#8
My advice is to be fine with coding challenges, just don't do non compensated take homes. Take homes trend toward being non-paid work; I've seen plenty that are asking for a frontend and a server and a DB, and it's just something I would charge for.

Re: Ask HN: Do you refuse to do coding challenges for software engineer interviews?

#9

No, I lean in the opposite direction - I would be more inclined towards employment opportunities which have a reasonable coding challenge as part of the hiring process. In my experience, there is a strong correlation between how technically challenging the hiring process is and how good a place is to work as an engineer. A reasonable coding challenge is a signal that there are competent engineers within the organizat…

there is no correlation between passing leetcode type interviews and actual software development skills

Re: Ask HN: Do you refuse to do coding challenges for software engineer interviews?

#10
post #4

If it's something reasonable, I don't mind it at all. My GitHub profile is pretty sparse as everything I write is for work. A 30-60 minute skills check is nbd, especially if it's used to understand how I approach problems.

Does leetcode count as skill check?

no
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