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Comment by johnnyb9 | Hacker News Reader

I once had to do a take home project... the spec said I could write either a console application or a GUI.

Fast forward to the in person meeting, they go through my solution and nitpick random things like "why use NuGet packages" or "why no test cases" (I had written them but they got mysteriously removed from the solution).

Finally the CTO speaks up and asked why I didn't write a GUI, as many other candidates had (mind you this was an application that accepted inputs and ran a calculation). I responded, "it's less effort to write a console application and the assignment said it was acceptable". CTO then snarkily asks me "do you always do the minimum"? I should have snarkily responded "only when I'm asked to code for free".

Thankfully did not get an offer...

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My response to the 'why not GUI' question would have been different: 'console applications are more versatile, easier to run across multiple platforms, and can be invoked by build and automation tools. I also feel that they might be friendlier from an accessibility point of view than GUIs.'

I am not BS-ing - I really like console apps. I agree with you that you dodged a bullet there. Any place that lays a false choice trap for you in this manner is not one that deserves the best candidates.

CTO then snarkily asks me "do you always do the minimum"?

I would have responded "Yes". The less we do, the less scope to go wrong, the less maintenance we have, etc etc.

In fact I don't want to work with anyone who would answer "No" to that.

If it was a company that does a lot of contracting, then doing the minimum (to spec) is pretty much required. Do anything more than what the customer asked for and you are wasting resources.

I think that situation calls for the candidate to preemptively make the decision that it's not a good fit. Who wants to work for a place that is obviously willing to waste your time and then insult you for it?

"Do you want your employees to divert their time to building functionality that you explicitly identified as unimportant in the requirements-gathering phase??"

ROFL. I would reply "You begin to sound like my gf, expecting me to magically know what she actually wants."

"Does your company choose to do things the hard way over the easy way just because it's hard?"

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