INTERVIEW CODING CHALLENGES

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[mat]

I think the problem is not every company is a FAANG, 95% of companies require you to change a label in page as most complex task of the day. If I have to invest time to study leetcode I better do it for a FAANG not for a wannabe Google that at best can copy just the recruiting process.

[freedom]

The problem with coding challenges is that they’re supposed to be done in 2/4hrs but nothing stops the competition to put in 16hrs, and you’ll have to do that too if you wanna stand a chance.

[simalicrum]

As a junior dev that landed my first job about a year ago, about 50% of companies asked for a coding test of some kind. That ranged from a few informal technical questions to full stack mini apps that took 2-5 days to complete. I was unemployed at the time and looking for my first break so that was fine. I did what they asked. Now I have a full time without paid overtime gig, I don’t have time for that kind of commitment. I will decline coding tests going forward. Companies have to understand, you’re asking for 8 hours of work or more. If I’ve applied to 20 companies, half want a take home test. That’s a couple of weeks of coding for close to zero percent chance of signing a contract in the end. Even places that want onerous interview processes, 4+ interviews with various teams, that big time commitment. I understand when it’s MANGA companies but every little mom and pop shop wants to do it. A lot of companies have figured out this is a bad approach and don’t bother. From a free market perspective, you’re scaring off the best candidates by creating more obstacles. Simple interview, checking previous experience and references works for every other field. Hospitals don’t ask you to crack open a body before offering you a job. Tech recruiters need to grab a clue.

[Dan-codes]

If software engineers joined together in this, it would absolutely stop.

[woolfel]

I've been coding for 20 years and my bias experience is companies that do coding challenges suck. You don't want to work there because it means they don't know SDLC. The three most important skills, problem solving, communication and team work. I never give coding challenges, because it means jack shit and doesn't predict is someone will be able to work effectively in the team.

[noel]

I refuse all coding challenges in the exact same way as this guy. It works for me because I have a long track record of 4-5 years each at very well known companies and my name is on successful shipped products (game industry). I say “look, I’ve been vetted over and over by these other known companies so I’ve proven myself enough in this way. I’ll talk technical issues all day long but I’m not doing some stupid whiteboard test or live coding “challenge”. Mostly works but you have to be willing to let some go. Also, with 20+ years experience I’d never get through a FAANG company interview…but that also explains why Meta’s metaverse is dogshit. Built by people who pass coding tests but lack real insight and experience.

[UGPepe]

I always refuse coding challenges. I've been programming for 20 years and I've also recruited and never needed to give someone a coding challenge. There's so many things wrong with that.

[kiunthmo]

live-coding is the worst for me. i was once given "find if any contiguous elements in the array sum to the target". except, i missed the word contiguous because I also had to talk because the interviewer would not shutup and let me think - not only did i not get the job but was also advised i dont apply for senior roles in general. if i have any advice for someone i would say tell your interviewer "hey, i may go silent while i think, but i'll let you know when i'm ready to talk it through with you" or words to that effect. read the question, do not listen to the question.

[Jussoparkours]

The last coding challenge I did and multiple interview rounds was when I worked at MS, then I just stopped participating in coding challenges and multiple rounds of interviews, just wasn’t interested. Started my own IT consultancy instead and now I just get shit done and my clients could care less if I could reverse a linked list 😂

[TJackson]

The coding challenge seems like overkill, if someone is senior enough.

[friedkitchenrce]

5:20 here’s the thing prime. A lot of interviews are not really asking those real life coding stuffs like async, API integration but those leetcode challenges centered around DS algos

[exapsy]

Honestly, I understand the aspect of "they waste too much time and effort of our candidates".

I've been in interview processes that took ... no joke ... 4-7 interviews, including a code test which "i passed", just to get rejected.
I took other interviews with "coding tests" that had 1-2 weeks of work, just to get rejected afterwards.
Many of them. I've got to name more than 3-4 that spend my time so worthlessly that it's just astounding.

This has made me burned out of having any job interviews. It's like ... ANOTHER JOB. It's nowhere like that in any other field. You just see the resume, take an interview and boom hired or rejected.

In the programming space, we have a major problem. And it's that, the disregard of one's, the candidate's, time, feelings, effort, fatigue, everything. That candidate may already have a job and now you're putting him under pressure for ... a coding interview that lasts a fucking week? It's like ... another job? Just to get rejected because I didn't pass your culture interview?

No thanks. Honeslty, I'm ironically one of those guys who may not or may indeed say "NO" to a coding interview. I'm tired, and I think before that I'll have my own business anyways. I'm already at a company that treats me well, and the job interview process was amazing and didn't disregard my time.

[joegaffney]

Live coding questions in interviews can heavily favour people with good short term memory that can cram temporary knowledge and take home projects you are essentially asking people to work for free so you would have to weigh up how long that would take and time the candidate has free to invest.

Possibly domain specific questions and discussions are more beneficial in an interview and you can usually tell someone's level from this.

[otak_]

I kinda disagree. The big issue with coding challenges is their size. Make them too small and they're completely useless. Make them too big and now it's disguised free labor.

The only form of coding challenges I really like is either showing a past open-source contribution or make a new one on the spot. It gives a very good overview of how people work and with what quality/speed. Also shows how well they respond to reviews/criticism when it happens.

For my currrent position I just showed one of my personal open-source projects and how I approach things, even on fun, absolutely cursed personal projects relating to NT Kernel internals. I just avoided the entire conundrum of a coding challenge. The other thing is that as a freelancer, I don't say no, but I **do** warn that I will send an invoice for the coding challenge. If it takes me a day, well, that's a full day of work. Make'em think twice.

[drifter]

Prime can't set aside his bias here as someone who recruits and uses challenges to do so. The fact remains, people who value their time, and abilities, are put off by them. Of course you can fill the role with one of the many happy or desperate enough to hop through that hoop. But as a recruiter, dismissing the potential that drop off from the process can be a big problem. Especially if further down the line you are hiring from a smaller pool of candidates for a more niche specialised role. Challenges, in all honesty, are just low effort assessment.

[half-ass]

I am not sure if it's a good analogy but I think whiteboard interviews for devs with yrs of exp is like asking statisticians to memorize poisson table

[dandogamer]

I prefer a technical chat, it provides both parties with the opportunity to gauge each others skill level.

[jameshansen]

Yes to all of this!! I have lost count on so many interviews I've had where I nailed the take home project and let myself shine, but then completely froze and failed when it came to the live whiteboard interview. I can code, or I can socialize; but I can't do both at the same time. That mental shift in problem solving just takes too much out of me.

[Dangasaur]

Our process is that we ask candidates to bring some code they wrote themselves (non-trivial) to walk us through. We expect them to be able to communicate the feature or the problem being solved, in detail what the code is doing and how it works, why they wrote it the way that they did, explain the dependencies, how this code is incorporated into the larger system, how they would make a change or react to a suggestion we make. We ask a lot of questions and for good candidates it turns into a great conversation. IMO being able to communicate clearly on all of these points, for code that the candidate wrote themselves, is the top skill to hire for.

[harmmeijer]

The article could have been written by me. A couple of years ago I applied for many openings in different positions (talking about work sadly). A lot of companies wanted to talk to me so I needed to travel somewhere only to talk to some HR goat and a management manager that both do not have any idea what I'm supposed to do in the company and just want to see if I'm a "good fit", then they want me to come again and talk to some technical people and usually they want to give me a coding test with unclear requirements that take 12 to 18 hours to complete.

If I were looking for work again I'd not go to a company to waste my time with the "good fit" talk and not waste my time with a coding challenge that will take more than 4 hours.