Took < 10 minutes. The problems were very, very easy. If they expect people to take 1-2 hours and have trouble with this, then the message that I would take away from this is that their hiring bar is quite low.
Can you solve it? The Greplin programming challenge
61–70 of 167 posts
Re: Can you solve it? The Greplin programming challenge
#62Python powerset() with max(), list.remove(), and sum() builtins made the last problem's solution ~5 lines long :)
Re: Can you solve it? The Greplin programming challenge
#63So what languages did everyone use? I decided to try a different one on each level, so I used Python, bash (letting GNU coreutils 'factor' do the hard work), and Haskell, respectively.
c / python
Re: Can you solve it? The Greplin programming challenge
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
I immediately went to Wikipedia, found out what type of CS problem the first challenge was, then followed the external links at the bottom of the page to find the Perl module I needed and installed it from CPAN. I quit because this seemed like cheating but now I'm thinking... Maybe it was the point? To see if I would try to find something off-the-shelf to solve the problem quickly. Still not sure it was, because if s…
I didn't solve the problems using existing code either. All three are entirely solvable by pencil and paper (or just inspection in the first case).
I would think that pencil and paper would be slower than writing the programs. But you're right that they are ridiculously easy.
Re: Can you solve it? The Greplin programming challenge
#65This really doesn't reflect a programmers skills in anyway. I managed to write ruby to solve the problems, but I approached it to do for fun. Brain teasers aren't going to weed out the good from bad.
Also, considering the instructions explicitly say "write code to..." I would say using tools that give you the answers is in fact cheating. It's like math test where you have to show your work.
Re: Can you solve it? The Greplin programming challenge
#66Uh ... call a phone number? No thanks. Edit: Excellent! Back to hacking.
I'm curious to know why calling a phone number was a deal-breaker. It seemed eminently likely (to me) that it would be an automated system, but, even if it wasn't, talking to someone isn't that big a deal to me. I certainly wasn't concerned about long-distance charges, but I suppose that might be a problem for some. I thought it was a nice little twist in the problem set.
I'm hearing-impaired.
Re: Can you solve it? The Greplin programming challenge
#6735 mins, but in less than 40 lines of ruby
I used Ruby, too. Nothing else required.
I think Clojure might've made things a tad easier (given all its sequence functions), but I'm just learning it, so Ruby all the way.
That said, finding the palindromes in Ruby took me about 12 lines of code (less if I didn't structure it using methods).
Re: Can you solve it? The Greplin programming challenge
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't solve the problems using existing code either. All three are entirely solvable by pencil and paper (or just inspection in the first case).
I would think that pencil and paper would be slower than writing the programs. But you're right that they are ridiculously easy.
For the third problem, yes. But after solving the first two problems without writing code, I didn't feel like starting on the last problem.
Re: Can you solve it? The Greplin programming challenge
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're writing code to test primeness or generate Fibonacci numbers, I sure as hell don't want to hire you. Maybe you should have called it the "Greplin Challenge," then, instead of the "Greplin Programming Challenge." It's not a real task, after all; the reward comes from accepting a completely artificial challenge. I'm going to do the challenge before dinner tonight, and before I leave work I could get source co…
Maybe we have a different hiring mindset than dschoon - we're equally happy with people who find the answers or create the answers. In a production system, we certainly wouldn't want hand-rolled primeness checking. But in a programming challenge, we think it's fun to write it for yourself.
Oops; I wrote my comment under the assumption that dschoon was with greplin, and in retrospect I'm not sure why. Sorry about that.
Re: Can you solve it? The Greplin programming challenge
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't solve the problems using existing code either. All three are entirely solvable by pencil and paper (or just inspection in the first case).
Ah. Well I'm an even worse hacker than I thought!
Don't feel bad, it's just how cperciva rolls :)