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Comment by leeoniya | Hacker News Reader

> there was virtually no predictive power to 'secret test cases' that we ran without providing to the candidate.

this brings back some unpleasant memories of a take-home i got from a FAANG.

basically i was given a loose spec to implement, with no real data or test cases (and was told that none would be provided when i asked). after submitting my work i received a terse rejection with 0 constructive feedback for my 6hrs of work. uncool.

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In one interview, I was given a timed hacker rank problem with a screen share with 2 interviewers. The sample tests passed and the real tests passed except for 2 (from what I remember) that timed out on large data sets. Before the tests were run, I already highlighted the part of the code that's the bottleneck and asked if I could copy the code to Visual Studio (the test was in C#) because the standard lib has a data structure for this use case that I hadn't used in a long time but I couldn't get the code to compile on hacker rank. I wasn't allowed to use the IDE and I was also denied access to the standard lib documentation (in front of then through the screen share). I couldn't implement the data structure within the time limit. I failed the interview. I still wonder what the point of that test was.

I always feel like that type of coding interview is a sort of engineering hazing. I know I am often consulting documentation, especially when working in a new problem-space or less familiar programming language!

I always try to give candidates the benefit of doubt with silly things like syntax or whatever since it's not like I'm interviewing for a live coding performer!

Same experience. This is why I will no longer do take home tests that take more than 90 minutes or look like they'll take more than 90 minutes (even if the company misjudges it).

The only exception I've made is if the company pays for the time.

Fwiw that job we had an explicit goal of 60 minutes or less and tested that against engineers we’d already hired.

I’ve heard guidance that said up to 4 hours was a fine. That might have been true back then before employers abused the system and made code tests just another hoop, not a replacement for, interviewing.

I've recently encountered similar assessments. I asked for feedback or the test cases but got none. What do you think the best option is to learn from the projects?

post it on stack overflow or reddit for feedback :D

typically they tell you not to post your solutions publicly, though i don't know why you'd be inclined to respect their wishes after such an experience unless you're dying to work there in the future; the main thing i learned from the project is that i didn't.

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