Show HN: HackerPen a better tool for tech interview | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: HackerPen a better tool for tech interview

hackerpen.io

22 pointsmarshall201616 comments

Hey! This is a pretty cool tool. As a nitpick, I think that the pricing page is off. $500 for a year, as opposed to $50 a month, is not a 20% savings.

600/1.2 = 500

I think it’s correct? Now I’m confused too

Edit: yup was wrong. Read reply for right calculations.

Typically "20% savings" would mean that you save 20% of the initial value. 20% x $600 = $120, not $100. I.e., you should multiply by (1-0.2), not divide by (1+0.2).

Edit: That has the undesirable property that common English sentences don't cancel out like you'd expect -- if you lower the price by 20% then raise it by 20% you don't end up where you started. Unfortunately, that problem doesn't go away whether "increasing/decreasing by x%" always refers to the former or the latter price; you'd require that it target's the former price in one direction and the latter price in the other, which IMO is even less intuitive than the status quo.

600 * (1 - 0.20) = 480

Good catch, I just updated it to 16% off. (600 - 500) / 600 = ~16.7% rounded down.

Nice tool at a fraction of the price of others in this space, but to be honest I'm not sure how it is a "better tool" - it's a code pad for coding interviews, but there are no rich features or any ways it distinguishes itself from others.

There are many gaps in the way code interviews are done, and especially with remote now I think there's a lot of ways you could have a tool which really differentiates itself in features and functionality. Good start though!

Thanks for the encouraging words! Agreed that there are many areas to explore. One aspect we're exploring is how to establish clear rubrics, and even share it with candidates ahead of time. Any areas that you think would be interesting to look into?

"Better" in what way? I have been using CoderPad (and similar services) for over a decade and they do all this and a lot more at the same price point.

Hi Paxy, thanks for the reply! So a few things are better IMHO (comparing to Codepad): - pricing: $50/month for unlimited v.s. %50/5 interviews codepad - the whiteboard feature is easier to use.

On our future roadmap, we also plan to make a feature for feedback loop that encourages companies to share detailed rubric and feedback / and let candidates know what to expect and how they performed.

who cares about cost? the biggest cost is not your tool but the 10+ hours spent doing stupid code interviews, per candidate, by 10 different people, who all get pre-empted from more important work.

This doesn't solve any of the problems I hear a lot about with technical interviews so I don't see how it's better. Everyone (interviewers and interviewees) complains about writing code and using a white board; this just enables those hated un-proven interview techniques.

How does one conduct an interview for a software engineer without either writing code or using a whiteboard?

Give them a series of options each holding equal weight.

A) participate in an online coding assessment.

B) complete a homework assignment.

C) Demonstrate something you’ve done.

great idea although option C is really all you need. i graduated years ago in CS and had several projects already that i could show, upon graduation. if you have none you can show or talk about, your CS program is broken.

CS grads did enough of this in college. are you asking your lawyer or doctor for a mock trial or bypass surgery before letting them do their job?

exactly - we don’t need more browser code editors. the process is broken and needs to be changed, and does not account for the years of experience and previous (personal) projects

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