Hacker News Reader

It would be fantastic if the candidate could just click a "run" button at any time, and (provided with some input string), see the output.

Of course this would make the pass rate a lot higher... but, assuming you tracked each iteration, would give the recruiter a chance to look at how the candidate goes about identifying their mistakes.

View on HN

I will add the interactive syntax feature seeing that everyone wants it.

Now about tracking iterations, from a candidate's POV, I'd be worried about how my work was coming across, at a stage when I might not be ready to show it yet. I think it's respectful of people's privacy to let them show only the final code that they want to show, and not track their every move on the test. If someone did it to me, I'd be unhappy.

You could just take the code snapshot when they choose to run it. Warn them of this, so they only end up showing the recruiter code they think will either work or is suitable for iterative development.

Thanks for the suggestion! This goes in my notes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com