Missing out on jobs because of LeetCode

I know some people hate take-home assessments, but for me it's a total life saver in interviews. I don't "think" out loud while I'm working, and there's no way in hell I'm doing it nervous while someone is looking over my shoulder.

Using Leetcode as a filter is great if you're looking for someone who interviews often, but in my experience it's not a great gauge if someone is a good engineer or not.

As a hiring manager we've tried implementing different strategies. On my team, we hired 4-5 engineers doing live coding exercises similar to leetcode, and none of them made it more than 6 months. We switched to a take-home project for the last 3 we've hired and they've all been with us for 2+ years and have been great.

Of course with the take home projects you're filtering for people who are willing to take a few hours of personal time to work on something, but over the interview process it seems like it washes out? Of course this is just anecdotal data on a fairly small team, but I hate LeetCode style interviews.

Re: Missing out on jobs because of LeetCode

#7

Post by carlos-menezes » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 5:47 PM UTC

oaththrowaway wrote: post #6

I know some people hate take-home assessments, but for me it's a total life saver in interviews. I don't "think" out loud while I'm working, and there's no way in hell I'm doing it nervous while someone is looking over my shoulder. Using Leetcode as a filter is great if you're looking for someone who interviews often, but in my experience it's not a great gauge if someone is a good engineer or not. As a hiring manage…

I feel the same. I'd much rather do a take-home than a live coding intervie: it offers a much better representation of how I work daily.

Re: Missing out on jobs because of LeetCode

#8

Post by 7speter » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 5:50 PM UTC

oaththrowaway wrote: post #6

I know some people hate take-home assessments, but for me it's a total life saver in interviews. I don't "think" out loud while I'm working, and there's no way in hell I'm doing it nervous while someone is looking over my shoulder. Using Leetcode as a filter is great if you're looking for someone who interviews often, but in my experience it's not a great gauge if someone is a good engineer or not. As a hiring manage…

If you’re getting quality hires with take homes, doesn’t that mean that even if theres filtering going on, its still effective to a degree as opposed to being totally arbitrary?

Re: Missing out on jobs because of LeetCode

#9

Post by oaththrowaway » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 5:55 PM UTC

7speter wrote: post #8

oaththrowaway wrote: post #6

I know some people hate take-home assessments, but for me it's a total life saver in interviews. I don't "think" out loud while I'm working, and there's no way in hell I'm doing it nervous while someone is looking over my shoulder. Using Leetcode as a filter is great if you're looking for someone who interviews often, but in my experience it's not a great gauge if someone is a good engineer or not. As a hiring manage…

If you’re getting quality hires with take homes, doesn’t that mean that even if theres filtering going on, its still effective to a degree as opposed to being totally arbitrary?

I would think so, but we'll have 100 people come in and talk about the quality hires they get from LeetCode interviews.

Re: Missing out on jobs because of LeetCode

#10

Post by ilrwbwrkhv » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 6:07 PM UTC

Leetcode is slavery for developers. Shun any company that uses that for interviews because they are cargo culting idiots.