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Comment by kozikow | Hacker News Reader

> how they only want the best candidates and how hard their interviewing process is

I sometimes feel like those algorithmic challenges at interviews are more for making developers feel they work at the "top team" than filtering the candidates. I am not salty about it - I am very good at those, did lots of Topcoder back in the day.

Most of the people in the industry agree that they have a terrible signal-to-noise ratio (or any other standardized interview method for developers). Any method that works doesn't scale, but large IT corps don't want to hear that.

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> I sometimes feel like those algorithmic challenges at interviews are more for making developers feel they work at the "top team" than filtering the candidates.

I think that's partially correct, but a side effect. I think the real function is to make managers and execs feel that their devs are the "top team". But totally right about it being more about feelings of superiority than objective and relevant qualities for the job.

So long as those algorithmic challenges are actually in-use. Warranted. If it's just to flex that last little bit of grey matter, not warranted. The issue is software complexity is such a spectrum that so too must the interview process. No standard "developer 101" interview exists because each company has different software needs. An entry-level exam at Google will look different than an entry-level exam at Dunder-Mifflin. I think better expectations and better communication are the way to have successful (and meaningful) interviews. Yes, code test and all that but you should formulate the interview so that it gives you a good understanding of what they would be like to work along-side. I agree though with what you said.

Makes sense there is a lot of self worth or pride people attach to their work. It is quite common in software devs I know.

Especially young and impressionable ones. I am past 35 so I am past all of that. I know I do good work and I don’t need external validation as much as I was 20-something.

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