For the sake of comparison, there is a site with a similar aim that was mentioned here earlier. http://www.codeeval.com/
Also, there is http://www.coderloop.com/
Interview Street (YC S11) streamlines the search for great programmers
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Re: Interview Street (YC S11) streamlines the search for great programmers
#42Maybe it's just me, but when I look for great programmers, their ability to solve coding challenges is really the least of my problems.
In my experience, the ability to leverage those skills into delivering mature, stable, maintainable and generally high quality software is considerably rarer than the skill to solve puzzles. And don't even get me started on non-technical skills, like being able to organize and plan the work, communicate with non-technical people etcetera.
Basically, I don't see this kind of testing covering more than 5% of the screening effort.
Re: Interview Street (YC S11) streamlines the search for great programmers
#43A computer program automatically torturing applicants with endless puzzle tests is not a way to find talented qualified people with experience delivering working results that delight the user. It's a good way to find people that have a lot of free time to play games because they are unemployed.
In the years following my first job out of school (decades ago) I can't recall any work that I have gotten by going to these sites, or dealing with monkey tests. Work comes because of my reputation and experience which speaks for itself. At conferences people give me their card and tell me to call them if I am looking to 'move up', which generally means "pay more than the last guy". Any time one contract or job ends, I look through these cards. Most of the time I get several phone calls from people I have met of the sort: "Hey Bugsy, I heard rumors of ABC Corp having layoffs. You looking to get out? We have a position..."
It's bad enough when the interviewer wastes more than 10 minutes of time with puzzles. Having it be automated so it can waste hours and hours without any human feedback is extremely offensive. Whoever designed this system knows nothing about acquiring talent.
The note in the article that in the future the site is going to be augmented with "real world tests" that force the user to design entire sites or otherwise labor for free borders on criminal since they are forcing you to do real work and you're not getting paid for it, in violation of state and federal labor laws.
If you haven't already seen examples of someone's work before you contact them, maybe you shouldn't be hiring them. Or maybe you need recruiters who know what they are doing.
Again, I have no doubt that desperate people who are unemployed because of their incompetence or lack of skill will not have any problem devoting the hours needed to google answers, or to hire third parties to help them complete these tests. I am sure complementary businesses will now open up that sell test answers to desperate applicants for a fee.
Re: Interview Street (YC S11) streamlines the search for great programmers
#44Might want to tell your co-founder that pictures of hot chicks on his blog might not give the most professional impression: http://sp2hari.com/
Disagree.
Oh, and, by the way, if you think that it's unprofessional to be funny, then I'm sorry, but you just don't have a sense of humor. (Don't deny it. People without senses of humors always deny it. You can't fool me.) And if you work in a company where people will respect you less because your specs are breezy, funny, and enjoyable to read, then go find another company to work for, because life is just too damn short to spend your daylight hours in such a stern and miserable place.
Re: Interview Street (YC S11) streamlines the search for great programmers
#45Competitor Codility (funded by Seedcamp) who launched a couple of years ago was discussed quite extensively at the time: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1039140
I had great fun doing the codility tests. Their site is great, allowing you to do the tests in the language of your choice.
Re: Interview Street (YC S11) streamlines the search for great programmers
#46In case people didn't know this, this is based all out of India. And we have Yuvi Panda (HN:yuvipanda), one of the younger hackers around here, joining them. Can't wait to see how they do.
We just moved to valley :)
Nice. We should meet up :)
Also, another tidbit for folks here - Yuvi is following the startup lifestyle by taking a break from college and joining this startup. Which is a big, big deal in India. I'm very impressed
Re: Interview Street (YC S11) streamlines the search for great programmers
#47Competitor Codility (funded by Seedcamp) who launched a couple of years ago was discussed quite extensively at the time: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1039140
I had great fun doing the codility tests. Their site is great, allowing you to do the tests in the language of your choice.
Neither of these sites allows you to do the tests in the language of your choice =/
Re: Interview Street (YC S11) streamlines the search for great programmers
#48The only thing a site like this can "streamline" is the weeding out of the truly incompetent people, pretending to be programmers. But I'd argue that it's not a very hard task anyway. So, while solving the challenges will be fun for the applicants, it doesn't seem like the service would be of much help to the companies.
Weeding out the truly incompetent people may not be hard but it's time consuming nonetheless. A phone screening may take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes of the interviewer's time, regardless of the interviewee's competence. Multiply this with the number of candidate a company has to wade through for a single opening and it gets significant real soon.
They're probably not the new LinkedIn but I think they're into something.
Re: Interview Street (YC S11) streamlines the search for great programmers
#49I get frustrated because I am pretty horrible (in my mind) at these kind of math puzzles ("Given N numbers , [N 0 and K Your company is a web app, I can write web apps; why am I solving problem sets from undergrad Discrete Math to demonstrate competence? Why not have the tasks be like "Use AJAX to pull down a users last 10 tweets and display them on a web page"? Maybe it's because the only samples are generic and not…
Agreed. But more, is there any evidence that these types of technical tests actually select for better employees?
Well, circumstantially, there are companies like Google and Microsoft who spend a lot of time on these types of tests. It's not an original suggestion that they aren't effective, so I have to assume that Google et al have considered this...and yet they're still using them.
Re: Interview Street (YC S11) streamlines the search for great programmers
#50A computer program automatically torturing applicants with endless puzzle tests is not a way to find talented qualified people with experience delivering working results that delight the user. It's a good way to find people that have a lot of free time to play games because they are unemployed. In the years following my first job out of school (decades ago) I can't recall any work that I have gotten by going to these…
Not every developer has a brand. This service appears to target companies hiring developers that don't. Fortunately that is 99.99% of the market.