Ask HN: Being asked to send in code and sign a dual NDA for an interview? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Being asked to send in code and sign a dual NDA for an interview?

3 pointsthrowaway19247210 comments

Hello. I am interviewing for a company and they've moved me to final stages. They asked me in the first interview how I like to be interviewed/what interview tactics worked for me. I said to go over code in depth that the interviewee has worked on and is proud of. So this is how they are interviewing me for my final stage which is fantastic.

Thing is, 99% of the code I'm proud of and want to show off are my own projects which I've put a lot of time into, and are profitable SaaS apps. Not enough to negate a day job, but enough to afford life without one. I have a lot of free time and I found a company I'm very excited to join that is very in line with what I am doing.

I'm not against sending them code, and it's not that I don't trust them, I am just trying to find the best way to go about this without sending all the code to a fully working and profitable SaaS app.

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I have never been asked to send code in an interview. I have my code in github reviewed by the interviewers, but that code was open source, so not an issue for me.

However, I would not share a full non-open source working code, less so if it belongs to my side job. Send some part of it with some of it "redacted" if they really need to see your code skills, talk about the architecture with them, show them the evolution of the platform (the issues you found and the like).

I definitely know cases of businesses and start ups - either offering to buy out or employ another party, asking for access to code and other secret information, requiring NDAs, and then making off.

I would personally never share more than some small snippets of code. Throw those snippets on a different repo and that’s it.

If they demand to see more of the code base, ask them specifically what they’d like. If they want the entire project, I wouldn’t proceed any further.

I can’t speak for the sending of existing code you’ve already done, because I’ve never done that.

I have done interviews where the initial stages were vague, and they couldn’t go into any more detail until you had signed the NDA.

IMO, that’s normal for interviewing for a position at a company or a group inside of a company that has not yet launched their product, or is otherwise doing sensitive stuff.

I normally just snip off a module and send it in a zip. Often the easier to understand ones. You could even remove things that allow them to build the application, just looking at code style is enough.

You should need to send "all" the code to establish your bona fides.

Just a few representative branches and snippets, here and there.

The thing is that git history is also important. If I cut out code but still send them the git repo, they'll just be able to see the changes anyways.

Then don't do that. Just copy it to a different repo (or some non-respository stash), and explain that the Git history has been sanitized (because it is after all a sample, not a fully runnable app).

Yes the code is in the git repository. https://git-scm.com/docs/gitrepository-layout

They aren’t gonna steal your app. Don’t worry about it. Just send tidbits, no one cares.

Charge a $250/hr consulting fee.

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