Show HN: Free, anonymous coding interview practice

Post by smikhanov » Thu, Jul 03, 2014, 11:42 AM UTC

nileshtrivedi wrote: post #189

eru wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be an interesting way to apply something like re-captcha: ask them to fix two bugs in open source applications. One bug that you've actually already fixed, so you know how hard it should be and can calibrate; the second bug is open.

How about just asking them to code something - anything - in say, a couple of hours?

Post by UniZero » Thu, Jul 03, 2014, 12:17 PM UTC

sbov wrote: post #163

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, we're having trouble even testing for competency. I passed a pen and paper interview recently (did confidently well on coding, blew the SQL part because I had only used APIs and still thought I should put that on the resume) and still got the position. I'm still scared shitless that I'm going to flub day 1 and I've been cramming and exercising basic knowledge for the past two weeks. I'm worried that the test was…

Different people are going to have a different answer to your question, but here's how I approach things: You should commit things to memory the things your memory naturally keeps. If it doesn't it means you aren't using it often enough to bother remembering it. There's so much information I used to keep re-learning and forgetting because I never used it. I finally realized that it was a waste of time. I guess the pr…

Post by bleak999 » Thu, Jul 03, 2014, 2:12 PM UTC

claus1860 wrote: post #187

lazyant wrote: post #11

S

This is a very interesting discussion. Would love to hear your thoughts on our London based startup www.Prehash.com which is going in a similar direction. Companies can host organization specific coding challenges on our website and developers apply by solving them. There is no time limit for developers and no one is looking over your shoulder. The only thing is that each time you run the test we take a snapshot in a…

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 03, 2014, 2:58 PM UTC

JPKab wrote: post #120

robbyking wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The analogy I use is a coding interview is like asking a musician to play a specific song; chances are, a classically trained pianist won't know the chords to a specific pop song, but that isn't any indication of their skill as a musician. The interviews I had with the company I work for now were amazing; they asked me some basic questions to verify my resume wasn't completely BS, then asked me to discuss previous pr…

I recently was flown to Austin for an interview. The entire reason I was brought down was because of Python ML projects on Github. The technical interview consisted of nothing, and I mean NOTHING but super advanced SQL questions. (over the phone, I had specifically stated I hadn't used SQL in years) My expectation was that I'd be interviewed using Python and asked to perform ML related tasks. When I mentioned that I…

Post by yarou » Thu, Jul 03, 2014, 4:54 PM UTC

onislandtime wrote: post #85

Dear software professional: if you have been rejected because of a coding interview, don't feel bad or discouraged. It has little to do with how smart you are. Unfortunately, this style of interviews is likely ineffective and leads to hiring people who look alike and have similar skills. Solving a problem with someone looking over your shoulder and forcing you to talk to explain what you are thinking is a skill that…