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Ask HN: Poor Codility performance, am I a bad programmer?

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Re: Ask HN: Poor Codility performance, am I a bad programmer?

#11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> passing or failing on codility means nothing. it just means the company trying to interview you through codility has no idea how to interview you. It's a decent enough way to filter out obviously bad candidates without eating up your time (which is a big deal for small teams). I've used Codility for interviewing and being interviewed before and thought it was fine. I would only reject a candidate if they got say le…

> passing or failing on codility means nothing. it just means the company trying to interview you through codility has no idea how to interview you. I didn't say it was a fault with codility. Some companies, like your's, use it in a sensible way. But I think there are many companies which use this tool the wrong way. Anything except the easy level takes more time for someone who doesn't practice these kind of challen…

Yeah, I'd always take the points you mentioned into account when reviewing a solution. Along with saving time I did find reviewing Codility submissions quite revealing. I've seen cases where the candidate couldn't get code to even compile, another where they didn't know Java includes map data structures existed (asked them in the follow up interview) and another where the implementation for an easy task was super slow when the nearly fastest approach should have been obvious (again, asked about in interview).

I'd say it's better for identifying really unsuitable candidates than it is for identifying who are the best ones.

Re: Ask HN: Poor Codility performance, am I a bad programmer?

#12
There are somethings you may have not known about the codility test - they have an FAQ: https://codility.com/candidate-faq/. You can lookup stuff on the web. You can also use an IDE.

For the codility test you need preparation. The problems are not easy and the problem setters underestimate how long it takes to solve a problem. Unless you're regularly participating in coding contests etc, you will not make it. The way we program day to day, and in a timed test env are different. You should not feel bad.

Re: Ask HN: Poor Codility performance, am I a bad programmer?

#13
I agree with others that performance on programming puzzles is not representative of your skill as a developer. However, I'd also like to add that knowing how to analyze worst case runtime or space with Big O notation is very useful and can make a huge impact on the performance of your application.

While reviewing programming puzzles may not be a great use of your time, I would suggest refreshing your knowledge on the Big O complexity of common data structures and algorithms.

Re: Ask HN: Poor Codility performance, am I a bad programmer?

#14

Two things: a. No, you're probably not a bad programmer. Companies who recruit solely based on codility type questions are... How do I put it?... Not smart. b. Learning things like analysis of algorithms, data structures and other computer science fundamentals is useful, even if you might not use them directly, they will influence the way you think. It is never too late to start and given an open mindset, willingness…

Thanks for the link, I've not seen a book that deals in algorithms that didn't assume calculus knowledge.

My CS education wasn't exactly MIT or Stanford, so this should help plug the holes left by my university and shameful lack of curiosity years ago.

Thanks again!

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