They want free work. Simple as that.
When the coding sample isn't integrated at all in to their stack and is a standalone toy application? Come on.
Ask HN: Is it now common to ask for “full” applications as part of interviewing?
21–30 of 77 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it now common to ask for “full” applications as part of interviewing?
#22There's a big caveat to this story in that I already had another offer I was considering, but I walked out of an onsite where they wanted me to do something similar, but on top of a skeleton project in an IDE running on their own laptop that they provided. But then, after sitting there for a full hour watching their dev try to figure out why the environment wasn't reset properly after the last candidate, and not being willing to have it run late and cause my flight home to be at risk... I decided to just leave.
Re: Ask HN: Is it now common to ask for “full” applications as part of interviewing?
#23I once designed a fairly simple code test as part of interviewing, requesting that the code in question be added to a public github repository. The code in question needed to be in node/javascript, read an xml file as a stream, and output a json file (newline separated json)... I then did the challenge myself, it took a couple hours.
To me, it represented enough of a system that I could see how a problem was broken up. I also wanted to see some insight as to using npm, determining a package(s) to use and then that they used streaming not read it all into memory... as this can cause issues with really big files.
Only 3 people actually returned any code, and only 1 half worked. Amazing how many people will label themselves "expert" and can't figure out how to read in a file, as a stream or otherwise.
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Edit: Additionally, we were not trying to outsource interview work, but the task itself was something we were doing similar things with as we were actively migrating to a new database, and there was a lot of conversion tasks underway in support of this.
Re: Ask HN: Is it now common to ask for “full” applications as part of interviewing?
#24Yeah, I've seen these. I had one that involved essentially creating a front end app to retrieve data from a 3rd party api, parse the data, and display it on an html page with interactive controls to let the user filter the data.
So, an HTML/CSS/Javascript test proving that you know how to make an api request, play with data, and set up event handlers.
Which is fine, I suppose, except it was with a 2 hour limit and you had to code everything via a web interface (hackerrank maybe?).
I found it super annoying to work outside of my editing environment without any of the linting tools that I'm use to working with and without even source control to record good commits to jump back to if things went wrong.
The task itself was not particularly hard, but I had to work very fast, didn't finish the last filtering options, and had no time for design -- everything was default html with a few primary colors thrown in here and there.
I don't mind a time-limited coding challenge, but not letting me use the tools I use every single time I code (and would use if I were hired to work there) was very frustrating.
Re: Ask HN: Is it now common to ask for “full” applications as part of interviewing?
#25I don't mind to do any code test a company requires, but I expect the same commitment on their side. They are looking for candidates and don't want to waste time, but if I am looking for companies I don't want to waste time either.
Usually they ask for a test to asses my skills, but if I am already in the industry I have similar projects I did in my free time that we can use to discuss. I dislike to repeat the same test other candidates have already done if there isn't a good reason. Asses my skill by fulfilling your expectations with your test is not the way go in my opinion. If you are looking for talent to bring new skills to your team, definitely you cannot get them if you are looking for the skills you know. It is better to have an open conversation about something the candidate has done that have some impact.
Re: Ask HN: Is it now common to ask for “full” applications as part of interviewing?
#26I spent a weekend working on one of these interview projects only to find the company didn't like the Apple libraries I selected to use. They needed someone with very specific knowledge but failed to list that as part of the project requirements. The result? No job offer, my time wasted and I have a very poor opinion of both the company and recruiter to this day. if you're going to do an interview project, make sure you ask lots of questions up front before investing your time.
Re: Ask HN: Is it now common to ask for “full” applications as part of interviewing?
#27This sounds like a good startup idea: A certification agency where they put you through the works, measuring your ability to write code, solve various challenges, complete complex projects, etc. Then they can issue a certificate to those that pass their examinations.
Maybe in addition, they can offer training in various topics, include periodic assignments during those training periods, then have several days of monster examinations at the end of it. After which, you then finally get this certification. Of course, if this is done properly, it may take about 4 - 6 years of full time work to get through all the training and examination sessions.
Re: Ask HN: Is it now common to ask for “full” applications as part of interviewing?
#28I once designed a fairly simple code test as part of interviewing, requesting that the code in question be added to a public github repository. The code in question needed to be in node/javascript, read an xml file as a stream, and output a json file (newline separated json)... I then did the challenge myself, it took a couple hours. To me, it represented enough of a system that I could see how a problem was broken u…
Curious: Why do you use JS for such things? Seems like a job better suited for a workhorse like Java or C#. It would be much easier and I think C# or Java devs would find it easier by virtue of that being a typical back end app that they would have developed before.
Re: Ask HN: Is it now common to ask for “full” applications as part of interviewing?
#29I've stopped interviewing with companies that do this. Take home interview "challenges" take up a lot of time and resources. Most of the ones I've gotten have been prototypes/MVP type deals. + You're asking me to spend almost a week of my time, for free + I have similar examples on my Github + I'm not usually allowed to share the solution Sorry, but if you can't look at my significant github profile and figure out if…
What if it's a coding challenge that is purposely timeboxed to 4-6 hours?
At my previous job, we asked applicants to write a piece of software that would model the org chart for any given employee, enumerating their hierarchical relationships as well as their peer relationships. We may have thrown in an additional complexity or two, but we also removed a lot of requirements (no i/o or database, no user interface; we only sought application logic). Candidates were required to solve the problem in the language of their choice, spending between 4-6 hours on the exercise. The instructions were otherwise intentionally ambiguous.
By specifically calling out an amount of time, and requesting that candidates not spend more or less time, we drew conclusions about:
* Candidate's ability to derive features from imperfect 'business requirements'
* Ability to know when something is 'done' given time restrictions
* Understanding/handling of implied but not explicit edge cases
* Creative thinking
* Tendency for writing testable code
As one can imagine, this weeds out lots of individuals who exhibit tendencies deemed "undesirable" for this role. Scope creep, missed requirements, untestable code, code that doesn't actually work, solutions written in unsuitable languages (Django? Really?) and the list goes on. You'd be amazed what people return when asked to perform a 4-6 hour coding exercise.
Re: Ask HN: Is it now common to ask for “full” applications as part of interviewing?
#30As some other commenters mention, and I feel the same way: if a company asks you to do this, they're asking for too much and I think it's fair to tell them that that is an unacceptable amount of work for an interview. I can kind of see this as fair only if you are going in as a more experienced dev but with no work examples, but in that case, it's simple enough to contact references to verify previous work and positions. The only reason I would do this during an interview is if they paid me for my time, essentially treating me as a contractor for some period of time, and the time frame was large enough if I was currently working. If a company asked for this without offering to pay, I would decline the interview.
One additional thing to consider is that if you do work like this for an interview, you should explicitly request to keep the copyright to the work in case they don't give you the job, so you can showcase to other prospective employers. A simple way to do this would be to request them to review it on Github or Gitlab.