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I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

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Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#531

Post by crimsonalucard »

amelius wrote: post #271
amondal wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happened to me too. A company reached out to me on Angel with their coding "challenge" - create a facebook timeline clone with an API, enzyme + selenium tests, documentation, and deploy everything to AWS. fortunately i have enough experience to say no to this kind of thing, but I do feel that some more junior folks are being exploited into thinking this sort of project is normal for an interview

Perhaps this is why (sadly) junior devs are much more likely to get hired at tech companies than older devs?

The other reason is that you can pay them less.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#532

Post by AsyncAwait »

la_barba wrote: post #493
IshKebab wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that complicated. Some people are desperate for a job. They will do anything for it. You can abuse that need. Like, imagine if the TSA strip-searched everyone. Pretty abusive right? You wouldn't say "I don't see how letting people fly is abusive".

Ah.. the old "some people" logical fallacy. Sorry, I don't wish to enter into an internet argument with you. Have a nice day..

Just to note, it was clearly said "can be", not "always is".

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#533

Post by whatshisface »

kbenson wrote: post #434
whatshisface wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ML can be used as an unbiased random number generator, unlike humans.

If it's a random number generator, it's not ML. If it's unbiased, it's also not ML. ML is always biased based on the data you train it with, just as any student is biased based on the information they are educated with.

If you trained it on data that wasn't useful at all it would be an unbiased random number generator.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#534

Post by projektfu »

ryandrake wrote: post #400
nkohari wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we interviewed for the same job. I did the same thing, and got the same response. It was such a short timespan that I assumed it was a trick question, and they wanted to see if I could come up with a creative solution that technically met the requirements but was extremely simple. I implemented a board which you could put pins on, and a text-based chat system using websockets. The idea was that it would work…

I’d like to code review an example of what a successful hire finished in the allotted time. My guess is the code is bananas.

I bet it wouldn't be hard to knock something out in Squeak or Pharo. They'd probably give you 0 marks for that alone.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#535

Post by Alex3917 »

antt wrote: post #526
Alex3917 wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For an entry-level fullstack iOS developer it's not that bad. For context, for my first job as a developer the take home assignment I got was creating a web app that logged realtime CPU usage and created a graph of that CPU usage that was updated in real time. And this all had to be done using a specific language, web framework, and database that I had never used before.

>For context, for my first job as a developer the take home assignment I got was creating a web app that logged realtime CPU usage and created a graph of that CPU usage that was updated in real time. That's at worst a 4 hour job to do with a beer over the weekend. You sound incredibly incompetent if you can't tell the difference in difficulty between that and that they asked OP to do. That assignment is 1/128th the w…

You download a list of every street address in San Francisco, pick two at random, and write one line of code to get Google Maps to tell you how long it takes to drive between them. Where exactly is the complexity?

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#536

Post by MichaelDickens »

Loughla wrote: post #349
rimliu wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what makes you think AI/ML is better.

My same question. If we make terribly biased decisions, why would something with those biases baked in make any better decisions? Maybe because they're faster?

You train the AI based on outcomes, not based on humans' judgments of what they expect outcomes to be.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#537

Post by jghn »

wingerlang wrote: post #421
thoreauway wrote: post #305

I interviewed at Uber before they launched. Their "take home" was to create... Uber. Here's the exact challenge: UberCab Coder Challenge 1) Write a program that determines the wait time, trip time, rating, and fare for a black car trip in San Francisco, given that the customer's pickup location and destination is randomly placed anywhere in San Francisco proper, and given that there are X number of cars all placed ra…

I got a take home assignment from a large company a few months ago, it was the whole shebang as well. Build an iOS application with full test suite, several screens, should work with their test-api, should be polished, offline/online work etc. I estimated it to take at least 2 weeks. Sent it to a colleague and he estimated it the same. In reality you had 48 hours to turn it back in. I gave up halfway into the project…

Sometimes that's intentional. As a hiring manager I find value in seeing what someone chooses to prioritize when given an impossible task. If you have 48 hours to complete a 2 week project, what portions do you choose to complete? Can you explain why you chose that?

I also don't think it's cool to do what I just said without letting the candidate know that's what is happening. Otherwise they might just get frustrated and decline to work on it.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#538

Post by Tepix »

desireco42 wrote: post #482
zoomablemind wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it an interview for lead position or just coder? How did this end? It looks like a good chance to outline the resource requirements for accomplishing this. No way should this be a work of team-of-one. State the expected stages and some ideas for possible architecture and frameworks. Then ask for resources needed to implement this with some rough-optimistic estimates, including the budget. That should be enough fo…

That is excellent point, I really like where you are going with this. It shows maturity of the applicant as well. Sometimes I would like to say, you know, I like to work with good devs, so if you don't mind, I would like to ask you some coding questions. It freaked out some people with that, but it is in the same range as the questions they are asking.

That's clever!

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#539

Post by yati »

hrktb wrote: post #372
monsieurbanana wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's how you want to test potential engineers, I don't necessarily see a problem with the task itself. Just pay them! I'm sure Uber can find the budget for that.

I'm sure they're fine with engineers who don't ask to be payed for random tasks encroaching their private life. Snark aside, it can iffy to pay someone for a task at your company when they are still under contract in their previous job. In that sense, while your point is sensible, it can be difficult to go that route from the candidate side.

I once was invited to interview for a startup to work with their (mostly remote) team for a week, for which they would compensate me at a decent rate. I never managed to find the drive to take a week off for this, but yes, it would have been tricky to explain to my then manager.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#540

Post by antt »

Alex3917 wrote: post #535
antt wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>For context, for my first job as a developer the take home assignment I got was creating a web app that logged realtime CPU usage and created a graph of that CPU usage that was updated in real time. That's at worst a 4 hour job to do with a beer over the weekend. You sound incredibly incompetent if you can't tell the difference in difficulty between that and that they asked OP to do. That assignment is 1/128th the w…

You download a list of every street address in San Francisco, pick two at random, and write one line of code to get Google Maps to tell you how long it takes to drive between them. Where exactly is the complexity?

> Where exactly is the complexity?

In understanding the question.

At any rate, you still haven't replied to my job offer. I need you to do two weeks of free work for me.

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