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Foobar

google.com

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141–150 of 178 posts

Re: Foobar

#141

Post by jen729w »

rikverc wrote: post #96
1945795 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this irritating? Google won't hire you iff you solve the puzzle, this is nothing more than a very popular way for institutions to generate free PR.

It is irritating because the "puzzle" involves having a history of searching for stuff that Google Foobar has tagged as relevant. If your Google searches are not linked with your Google account or if you search using different search engines, you're out of the game.

Once again a reminder that Google is, er, a company, whose aim is to, er, make money.

I'm not signed in to Google as a matter of course, and I block their ads, so I provide them very little value. As a result, I won't be able to use "foobar", whatever the hell it is.

Seems fair. Isn't really that irritating, is it? :-)

Re: Foobar

#143

Post by AceJohnny2 »

teddyh wrote: post #115

Google is self-selecting to employ those people who are fine with the idea of Google recording everything they do. This does not bode well for the rest of us.

I submit that this is only one small tributary to their huge hiring flow, don't overstate the impact this small thing has on their overall culture.

Re: Foobar

#145

Post by ionwake »

Ironchefpython wrote: post #88
rudolf0 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I Google Python-related things all the time from work, including yesterday and today, but I prefer not to login to any of my Google accounts when doing so. I've not yet received any kind of popup or redirection to foobar.

> I Google Python-related things all the time from work, including yesterday and today, but I prefer not to login to any of my Google accounts when doing so. Same thing here... I'm guessing that Google figures anyone cynical enough not to trust Google implicitly is a less desirable potential hire.

hmmm well I have a Python app running on GAE and I dont think I have been allowed access. With all the languages I work in they must be seeking something very specific.

Re: Foobar

#146

Post by kylebrown »

jpgvm wrote: post #29

I am not sure that it's the normal kind of web puzzle. The logins are being handled by an endpoint on AppEngine called 'ah'. Also this mysterious url: https://appengine.google.com/_ah/ Though there is definitely some semblance of it being a game, the iframe contains a reference to CSS file called rhgame.css. There doesn't seem to be any avenue to log yourself in, by the looks of it they first send people to a registr…

The puzzle is not figuring out how to log in. You get an invite, then you get the challenges: http://i.imgur.com/xtCdf94.png

They are story problems. The first one is cycle detection for a singly-linked list. After solving that, you can request another (time remaining is reset). In the math category, its a subset sum problem: http://pastebin.com/SEZXhKHY

Re: Foobar

#148

Post by slang800 »

jweir wrote: post #46

Examining the CSS class names there are: 'questions' 'terminal', 'console' 'editor', 'ace_editor' 'count_down_timer', 'prompter' and 'resizer' and the media rules for mobile, laptops, desktops

`ace_editor` is almost certainly referring to http://ace.c9.io/ ... but the JS component isn't loaded on the page.

Re: Foobar

#150

Post by drewthomas »

I got the invite a couple days ago but didn't "play" because I don't have the time or inclination, but I have to say the transition revealing the invite was pretty cool. Although I'm an app developer, based on my search history, I would say getting the invite is not based on how much or how often you search coding-related terms or your history of searching, but how nerdy your terms are, which alone is enough to overcome the barrier of entry (like the people here who triggered the invite searching for "python lambda" and "mutex lock"). So, after you get the invite and accept it, then you can log in on Foobar. The reason the HN link is so confusing is because the it goes to the Foobar login page, which assumes you already got the invite.
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