Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Here is the 15 sec coding test I used to instantly filter out most applicants

josezarazua.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 111 posts

Re: Here is the 15 sec coding test I used to instantly filter out most applicants

#91

Post by Maxatar »

ctoth wrote: post #87
Maxatar wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isnt the point of the article that blindly copying and pasting this code leads to the wrong answer? I agree many developers do blindly copy and paste things off the Internet, but I don't think that's something to desire or celebrate.

The point of this article is this person punishes people who copy and paste the code ... into their python interpreter to check. How many cases have you faced in your real job where this has happened?

So I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'd fire someone for copying and pasting code, but it's definitely part of my company's culture that copying and pasting code off of a website, and especially executing it, is something heavily discouraged to the point that it doesn't really happen at my job.

I'm perfectly happy to use Stack Overflow and other resources/tutorials, blog posts etc... to find solutions to problems, but just instinctively I would never think to copy and paste a solution from these sites and incorporate it into my codebase and I sure as heck wouldn't think to execute code from some untrusted site I happened to come across.

But this may also be a consequence of the domain I work in where we take security very seriously.

Re: Here is the 15 sec coding test I used to instantly filter out most applicants

#93

Post by Incipient »

tagyro wrote: post #57

Using (Safari) screen reader (I do, I have a hard time reading text on white background), the `=` becomes visible IMHO this is a dumb test

Taking something as simple as this as an upfront, genuine experience sharing, and that their data is true.

If this test makes 50% of people fail, it's an amazing test! A nearly free way to cull half the applicants seems great. Honestly not useful for any big company, but feels great for SMEs.

Re: Here is the 15 sec coding test I used to instantly filter out most applicants

#96

Post by array_key_first »

Maxatar wrote: post #91
ctoth wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of this article is this person punishes people who copy and paste the code ... into their python interpreter to check. How many cases have you faced in your real job where this has happened?

So I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'd fire someone for copying and pasting code, but it's definitely part of my company's culture that copying and pasting code off of a website, and especially executing it, is something heavily discouraged to the point that it doesn't really happen at my job. I'm perfectly happy to use Stack Overflow and other resources/tutorials, blog posts etc... to find solutions to problems,…

You can tell how safe a code snippet is from reading it.

Like, there's no way you're going to copy a 20 line algorithm from stack overflow on balancing a red-black tree and have it encrypt your harddrive.

Obviously you still need to test the code to make sure it works and understand what it's doing, but there is very little security risk here. Just look up the functions youre using and understand the code and you're fine.

Re: Here is the 15 sec coding test I used to instantly filter out most applicants

#97

Post by Daneel_ »

antisthenes wrote: post #95

How am I supposed to see this equal sign? My browser just doesn't render it. This is nonsense.

Did you read the article? That's kind of the point, that you don't see it visually, but when you copy/paste it then it's there. If you evaluate the code with your brain you'll get the correct answer, but copy and paste it and the answer is different.

Re: Here is the 15 sec coding test I used to instantly filter out most applicants

#98

Post by ikidd »

delduca wrote: post #5

Best test is to listen to 2h meeting without too much details and have to figure out how to ship the feature.

Listen for 2 hours to how the customer thinks it should be done, then do it the way that actually gets the result they asked for.

Re: Here is the 15 sec coding test I used to instantly filter out most applicants

#99

Post by sam_lowry_ »

Maxatar wrote: post #45
CharlieDigital wrote: post #14

What most interviews get wrong is that there are usually just a few "bullet points" that if you see them, you instantly know that the the candidate at least has the technical chops. Instead of creating a test that specifically aims for those bullet points, many technical assessments end up with convoluted scaffolding when actually, only those key bullet points really matter. Like the OP, I can usually tell if a candi…

If you have a test that can identify a good candidate quickly then you have honestly struck gold and can genuinely use that to start your own company. I mean this with absolute sincerity. One of the absolute hardest part of my business is really hiring qualified candidates, and it's really demoralizing and time consuming and unbelievably expensive. The best that I've managed to do is the same that pretty much every o…

Good candidates are not universally good, they are good for you after hire.

One of the best business analysts I worked with (also a profession, mind you) was almost fired when working under an old, grumpy and clearly underskilled one.

I was hired once without interview into a unicorn, was loved by colleagues but hated the work, the business and the industry, then left rather quickly.

See? There are mismatches and unknown unknowns, not just bad or good developers.

Re: Here is the 15 sec coding test I used to instantly filter out most applicants

#100

Post by sam_lowry_ »

eska wrote: post #53
antonymoose wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d love for you to elaborate :) But along that thought, I’ve always held that a human conversation is the best filter. I’ll ask you what do you work on recently, what did you learn, what did you mess up, what did you hate about the tool / language / framework. I strongly believe your ability to articulate your situation corresponds with your ability to do the job.

There are quite a few people who can code but have 0 social skills and can’t talk well or at all. In that sense I have to disagree with you, but I still wouldn’t hire them because they drag teams down.

These days there are more people in the industry that have great social skills, memorize leetcode but have 0 ability to patiently sit down and do meaningful work.

They don't just drag teams down, they destroy once great companies.

Post reply on HN