Rant HN: I hate hackerrank • Hacker News Board

Re: Rant HN: I hate hackerrank

#11

Post by EliRivers » Sat, Oct 08, 2016, 3:35 PM UTC

As an aside, I also dislike hackerrank; for me, it's the sheer ham-fisted ineptitude of some of the alleged learning exercises.

Look at this mess: https://www.hackerrank.com/challenges/preprocessor-solution

This purports to be teaching use of the preprocessor. It's horrific. It's someone's amusing "look at how you can create your own programming language by abusing the preprocessor" mess; fair enough, it's always fun to see someone do something this painful, but this is being genuinely presented as a preprocessor learning exercise.

One day I'll have to work with people who learned from this (and others like it), and it will be a long painful road to help them unlearn.

Re: Rant HN: I hate hackerrank

#12

Post by daveguy » Sat, Oct 08, 2016, 3:36 PM UTC

The important thing is not to ace the final result. The important thing is to communicate your thought process, identify bugs, talk about options in architecture and design, stay calm under pressure and keep a positive attitude even when asked to do something you think is silly.

The interviewers know "this exact problem" is not generally applicable to their work. They are looking at how you interact with the problem.

Projecting a bad attitude toward being asked to code on a whiteboard is the opposite of what you should do and misses the point entirely. Code golf and competition (right answer in min time) is not the point.

Re: Rant HN: I hate hackerrank

#13

Post by nine_k » Sat, Oct 08, 2016, 3:37 PM UTC

Went through this a couple times lately. No pain.

And the battery of automated tests helpfully written for you saves a lot of time.

If the companies you interview with choose problems you don't find relevant, it may be their fault, not HackerRank's.

Or even not a fault: they have to screen out a number of applicants who are good at boasting but can't actually code. You obviously can. It can be a bit boring, bit it gets you to the next stage with significantly fewer contenders.

Re: Rant HN: I hate hackerrank

#14

Post by rimantas » Sat, Oct 08, 2016, 3:37 PM UTC

orsenthil wrote: post #5

> Are we now at a point where an engineer should at all times be intimately familiar with competitive programming and codegolf techniques? Yes, we are. Accepting that trend seems to be better than ignoring it. There is one not-so-bad way to look at these programming challenges. In silicon valley, we live in a condition wherein the company could fail at any time. As a developer, most often, we have to learn something…

Why mot just require to be able to juggle 7 balls? About as relevant and as good for showing diligence.

Re: Rant HN: I hate hackerrank

#15

Post by orsenthil » Sat, Oct 08, 2016, 3:38 PM UTC

rimantas wrote: post #14

orsenthil wrote: post #5

> Are we now at a point where an engineer should at all times be intimately familiar with competitive programming and codegolf techniques? Yes, we are. Accepting that trend seems to be better than ignoring it. There is one not-so-bad way to look at these programming challenges. In silicon valley, we live in a condition wherein the company could fail at any time. As a developer, most often, we have to learn something…

Why mot just require to be able to juggle 7 balls? About as relevant and as good for showing diligence.

If the job is in a circus, certainly!

Re: Rant HN: I hate hackerrank

#16

Post by nicksergeant » Sat, Oct 08, 2016, 3:38 PM UTC

orsenthil wrote: post #5

> Are we now at a point where an engineer should at all times be intimately familiar with competitive programming and codegolf techniques? Yes, we are. Accepting that trend seems to be better than ignoring it. There is one not-so-bad way to look at these programming challenges. In silicon valley, we live in a condition wherein the company could fail at any time. As a developer, most often, we have to learn something…

On the flip side, now you have no idea if a developer is any good, because all they have to do is memorize a bunch of garbage interview algo techniques / questions.

Re: Rant HN: I hate hackerrank

#17

Post by lprubin » Sat, Oct 08, 2016, 3:40 PM UTC

nickbauman wrote: post #6

Knowing the implementation of a specific algorithm is much less important than knowing what class of problem you're facing, where and how to look up the details of algorithms that could help you and how to work well with others to get the work done. If your employer uses hackerrank to choose candidates, you really don't want to work there. People who do those things well are often the worst kind of people to hire: th…

Exactly this. The hiring process cuts both ways. Unless you're desperate, you should also be evaluating your employer and the quickest way for me to walk away is to filter candidates through something like hackerrank rather then something much more applicable to what I'd actually be doing as a programmer at the company. It shows me a big disconnect between hiring and the day to day and gives me no indication on the skill level of the team I'll be working with.

Re: Rant HN: I hate hackerrank

#18

Post by rajeshmr » Sat, Oct 08, 2016, 3:40 PM UTC

I face this problem. I am into server side scripting and automation and this hardly involves algos and stuff. The problem doesn't seem to lie with hackerrank but with one-size-fits-all HR approach. I would also pin the blame on lack of understanding on the part of HR personnel (they seem to be the drivers behind recruitment drives) of how the tech landscape is.They need to educate themselves on what sorta interview process to be conducted for different profiles.

Re: Rant HN: I hate hackerrank

#19

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 08, 2016, 3:41 PM UTC

akerl_ wrote: post #7

sotojuan wrote: post #2

The worst part of Hacker Rank is that it takes arguments as STDIN, forcing you to to a "read from STDIN" ceremony before actually getting to the problem.

If reading from STDIN is something that's considered a "ceremony", I'm already concerned about the rest of the code. STDIN is one of the most common input methods I use for most of the commands I interact with on a daily basis. It would be like discovering that somebody found "logging errors to STDERR" to be a "ceremony"

[deleted]

Re: Rant HN: I hate hackerrank

#20

Post by tspike » Sat, Oct 08, 2016, 3:42 PM UTC

nicksergeant wrote: post #16

orsenthil wrote: post #5

> Are we now at a point where an engineer should at all times be intimately familiar with competitive programming and codegolf techniques? Yes, we are. Accepting that trend seems to be better than ignoring it. There is one not-so-bad way to look at these programming challenges. In silicon valley, we live in a condition wherein the company could fail at any time. As a developer, most often, we have to learn something…

On the flip side, now you have no idea if a developer is any good, because all they have to do is memorize a bunch of garbage interview algo techniques / questions.

What is your preferred interviewing method?