Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
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Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
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Re: Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
#2"For experienced programmers like Adler, the new tests aren’t insurmountable – all that’s required is an injection of time to learn the new Hackerrank tricks."
Well, yeah. I do that too and I've been out of university for 5 years.
You have to prepare for interviews, and to resharpen your skills when you're changing jobs, it's the same whether you're 28 or 48.
I understand finding time is harder when you have a family and all, but it should not take much more than a few hours to get back to a decent skill level, and then you get to the interview stage where you can really stand out with your actual real world experience.
Re: Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
#3[deleted]
Re: Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
#4>
Exactly on point. Also one gripe I have with hackerrank (I did some of the challenges to brush up on some language knowledge), is that a lot of the questions are poorly designed and from obvious amateurs.
I still think that neither whiteboarding nor hackerrank selects for good developers. In the end you get people that studied hard to solve a certain class of problem that you'll never need in the real world. It's wasting candidates time, and it still shows nothing, except that your candidates know something unrelated to the job.
Re: Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
#5Are there any HackerRank-like apps out there that go beyond simple code challenges?
Re: Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
#6These are all good points, but how does the author reach the conclusion that the coding tests are ageist? Ageism was only mentioned in the headline.
Re: Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
#7"For experienced programmers like Adler, the new tests aren’t insurmountable – all that’s required is an injection of time to learn the new Hackerrank tricks." Well, yeah. I do that too and I've been out of university for 5 years. You have to prepare for interviews, and to resharpen your skills when you're changing jobs, it's the same whether you're 28 or 48. I understand finding time is harder when you have a family…
Isn't saying that a few hours is enough to get past it the nearly same thing as saying that it is just garbage?
Re: Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
#8What I like about these tests, is that everyone can have a shot. You can't forge a university degree you don't have, or a 5-years work experience, but you can take a couple of months and work hard to practice your algorithmic skills. As far as ageism is concerned, I prefer to have the opportunity to show my skills through technical tests rather than seeing my application ignored.
Re: Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
#9> Exactly on point. Also one gripe I have with hackerrank (I did some of the challenges to brush up on some language knowledge), is that a lot of the questions are poorly designed and from obvious amateurs. I still think that neither whiteboarding nor hackerrank selects for good developers. In the end you get people that studied hard to solve a certain class of problem that you'll never need in the real world. It's w…
Agree, but what is the alternative from the standpoint of the interviewer? These types of challenges are simple to state, self-contained, easy to timebox.
For the interviewer for a say intermediate-level enterprise software backend position who needs to quickly sift through 50 applicants, what is the better option by way of code challenges?
Re: Why HackerRank and other coding tests are ageist
#10"For experienced programmers like Adler, the new tests aren’t insurmountable – all that’s required is an injection of time to learn the new Hackerrank tricks." Well, yeah. I do that too and I've been out of university for 5 years. You have to prepare for interviews, and to resharpen your skills when you're changing jobs, it's the same whether you're 28 or 48. I understand finding time is harder when you have a family…
Isn't saying that a few hours is enough to get past it the nearly same thing as saying that it is just garbage?
If it takes a few hours for someone with actual programming experience vs. a year for someone without any experience whatsoever, it's not exactly garbage. Just like FizzBuzz isn't garbage. It doesn't tell you much, but it filters out the total frauds.