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Comment by byoung2 | Hacker News Reader

I had a similar experience. I just left ClearChannel last month to go work at a startup, and though I went through a recruiter to find my new job, I also applied to a handful of job postings at YC-funded startups (through the jobs link at the top of HN). I believe there were 5 total, and 2 of them had puzzles that I completed correctly. I have an impressive resume, and I was willing to relocate (I live in Los Angeles, so SF isn't too big a change). Not one response, even to say we got your email, thanks for doing the puzzle. Through the recruiter, I was interviewed and hired within a week, at a 37.5% salary increase. Go figure

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I have stopped doing puzzles for companies because I had the same experience everytime I solved a puzzle on a companies website. Common courtesy dictates that if you have a problem on your site that would take more than a couple of hours to solve then you should at least bother to reply personally when a candidate solves the problem (I am looking at you Quora). At first I thought it was just because my solution and resume got lost in the stack of applicants so I contacted someone at Quora on thier direct email address. Still no response.

I think it varies from company to company. A day or two ago there was a link here on the main page to a company's recruiting puzzle. Being unable to resist such coding challenges I knocked out a solution and fired off an e-mail afterwards asking a question about their expected approach. I suspect they were getting a lot of responses. Despite that I got an answer to my question (even after the disclaimer that I wasn't writing for a position) the next day.

Some companies get it right. They post a fun challenge, not a rote test, and attract skilled programmers with it. Most companies seem to just pick the most annoying thing they've ever had to do (C with non-standard pointer use, etc), obfuscate it, and call it a 'puzzle'.

I agree, through a recruiter and I have a job now :). Why the ads, why the questions if you can't take the time to let me know that you cant offer me a job. Would love to see more of that happening!

Recruiters were definitely more responsive with me, but hey thats their job right ;)

Yeah, but it should be HR's job too.

I think the best recruiters play the role of a modern-day union at this point. When I'm job hunting they are someone the company cares about maintaining a relationship with. Five years from now when I'm next looking the company probably won't even exist, but the recruiter may still be around and wants me to point my friends at them in the meantime. By the transient property of respect, HR departments actually respond to their emails.

Not to be nitpicky, but for anyone else confused: I think "transient" was meant to be "transitive."

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