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Announcing Starfighter

kalzumeus.com

321–330 of 418 posts

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#321
post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They won't look closely. As you seem to see yourself, they would rather spend $50k per engineer to a 3rd party service than perform proper recruiting by themselves in house.

You seem to be trolling, but to clarify I was suggesting Starfighter would be looking closely before referring candidates to clients. Their reputation depends on the quality of the candidates they refer.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. Obviously, if they reference Danny the Word programmer as a ninja rockstar to a Fortune 500 on a regular basis, their business is going to take a nosedive.

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#322
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for running a long-term CTF ! I've always been interested in those "improve your coding skills by playing" challenges but from my inexistent experience most of them fall in a combination of: - They are timeboxed - They are mostly (if not only) about cracking security - They are targeted towards low-level languages You've already stated that it won't be timeboxed (which totally makes sense as a hiring "middl…

If you are interested in a long-running CTF, we launched https://backdoor.sdslabs.co a few days back (with >30 challenges as of now). We also tend to have more beginner level challenges. I'm also really looking forward to this, especially from the pov of Hiring. Ours is an academic initiative, with no plans to monetize ever and its cool to see patrick and tptacek picking up the mantle on such a task.

Your app is not accepting email with the new longer domain extensions. eg: .systems

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#323
post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't seen it before, check out https://projecteuler.net/ which is a series of (very) loosely connected programming challenges. The challenges start mostly bite-sized and typical programming problems (think fizzbuzz or "what is the 100th prime") and grow into some really interesting areas. You use whatever language(s) you wish, with no time limit, and are free to skip around to whichever questions interest y…

Euler is more like math problems that can be solved with programming than programming challenges. Very neat, but decreasingly useful for programming practice past the first 20ish.

I always ask for the easier Project Euler tests (or give them a couple) to do; the reason they are good test (IMO) is that they are too small a task to leverage frameworks and can demonstrate things like good approaches to engineering and programming practice (even if the questions are mathematical)

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#325
So this site is about helping recruiters narrow down candidates more effectively by presenting real coding challenges.

I want to point out trueability.com that does same thing with Linux. I find it a very good and fair source for judging Linux admin candidates.

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#326
post #304
post #237

Hey job seekers. I'm level 45 in starfighter with a power VI blaster in C++ and IX in Python. $100 to get you to level 30, x1.5 per level above that (though obviously I can't get you above 45, but I know a guy so I can subcontract up to 52.) You just have to set up a port forward from your machine and I'll take care of the rest. Contact info is in my profile. Don't get suckered into using a bot. They may be cheaper i…

I'm not sure that cheating on this would be unethical. Programming is about getting things done. As a hiring metric, nothing can beat open source. The open source portfolio really is kind of a golden standard. It is real work that you have done, that has (hopefully) advanced the commons, because you love programming and have something unique to add to the world. Some fake video game programming may indicate something…

What is Express?

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#327
post #254
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some things you'd worry about a company like this doing that would increase dance-monkey-dance factor? What are some things a company like this could do to decrease dance-monkey-dance factor? We're not interested in making monkeys dance, unless they want to, and enjoy it.

> What are some things a company like this could do to decrease dance-monkey-dance factor? - Let players be paid by your clients to play for ~1 day. - Introduce a non-game version that's a straight forward coding assessment. - Make the game un-cheatable. - Write into your contracts that you won't be the exclusive hiring funnel. - Keep your clients confidential and don't let them mention your game in job ads (i.e., ta…

”My preferred hiring approach would just be contractor-for-a-day arrangements.”

I’m not sure that method would be suitable for people who already are employed. At least in Sweden, where I live, you can (AFAICT) get fired for working for your employer’s competitors. So if you don’t get the new job, you might lose your current job as well.

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#328
post #237

Hey job seekers. I'm level 45 in starfighter with a power VI blaster in C++ and IX in Python. $100 to get you to level 30, x1.5 per level above that (though obviously I can't get you above 45, but I know a guy so I can subcontract up to 52.) You just have to set up a port forward from your machine and I'll take care of the rest. Contact info is in my profile. Don't get suckered into using a bot. They may be cheaper i…

I like this idea, but I also like the one proposed here http://ortask.com/a-better-way-to-hire-developers-and-tester... . I fear that starfighter will overlook goood candidates simply because they are not good at gaming, which makes the second approach by ortask more interesting and maybe balanced.

The "overlooking" problem comes inherently with most heuristics. There should just be an option to forgo this system of measurement and use another one.

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are interested in a long-running CTF, we launched https://backdoor.sdslabs.co a few days back (with >30 challenges as of now). We also tend to have more beginner level challenges. I'm also really looking forward to this, especially from the pov of Hiring. Ours is an academic initiative, with no plans to monetize ever and its cool to see patrick and tptacek picking up the mantle on such a task.

Your app is not accepting email with the new longer domain extensions. eg: .systems

Thanks. I'll take a look at the email validation code.

Re: Announcing Starfighter

#330
post #304
post #237

Hey job seekers. I'm level 45 in starfighter with a power VI blaster in C++ and IX in Python. $100 to get you to level 30, x1.5 per level above that (though obviously I can't get you above 45, but I know a guy so I can subcontract up to 52.) You just have to set up a port forward from your machine and I'll take care of the rest. Contact info is in my profile. Don't get suckered into using a bot. They may be cheaper i…

I'm not sure that cheating on this would be unethical. Programming is about getting things done. As a hiring metric, nothing can beat open source. The open source portfolio really is kind of a golden standard. It is real work that you have done, that has (hopefully) advanced the commons, because you love programming and have something unique to add to the world. Some fake video game programming may indicate something…

I think it is wrong to except everyone to contribute to open-source and I have seen that even the very smart programmers are not interested in making personal projects or contributing to existing ones.

Honestly, after mind-taxing eight hour job, you want to go home, watch a movie, read a book or some other relaxing activity. Not to mention that for people with families, it is nearly impossible to find the time to contribute. The rockstar-ninjas with thousand-starred repos on Github are very rare.

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