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Please stop the coding challenges

(blackentropy.bearblog.dev)
261 points CrazyEmi | 1 comments | 15 Nov 24 15:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.22s | source
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fishtoaster ◴[15 Nov 24 18:07 UTC] No.42149357[source]▶
I recently ran an interview process for a relatively senior eng role at a tiny startup. Because I believe different interview methods work better for different people, I offered everyone a choice:

1. Do a takehome test, targeted to take about 4 hours but with no actual time limit. This was a non-algorithmic project that was just a stripped-down version of what I'd spent the last month on in actual work.

2. Do an onsite pairing exercise in 2 hours. This would be a version of #1, but more of "see how far we get in 2 hours."

3. Submit a code sample of pre-existing work.

Based on the ire I've seen takehome tests get, I figured we'd get a good spread between all three, but amazingly, ~90-95% of candidates chose the takehome test. That matches my preference as a candidate as well.

I don't know if this generalizes beyond this company/role, but it was an interesting datapoint - I was very surprised to find that most people preferred it!

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dahart ◴[15 Nov 24 18:33 UTC] No.42149571[source]▶
Interesting! I like the idea of choice, but as a hiring manager it makes my problem harder. How do you compare the results from different choices equitably? I find trying to compare candidates fairly to be quite difficult, even when they have the exact same interview.

Last time I did a coding interview for real, I had the choice of any programming language, and could choose between 3 different problems to solve. I liked that quite a bit, and was offered the job. Being able to choose Python, instead of, say, C++ in a time-bound interview almost feels like cheating.

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1. em-bee ◴[15 Nov 24 18:47 UTC] No.42149671[source]▶
in one interview for a python job i was allowed to submit solutions to tests in pike which i had more experience with, but none of the devs at the company had ever seen. for python they had an automated testsuite but i remember my interviewer telling me that the devs were pouring over my test results to verify them manually while we continued other parts of the interview. i got the job.