Spare me your puny little Coding Contest, earthling

I view them as sort of a password to get past a gate-keeper. I tried posting job ads without puzzles in many places. I was always inundated with emails from a) recruiters b) people on unemployment who were required to apply for x number of jobs c) foreign candidates wanting visas d) others who didn't read the ad criteria.

Our last hiring round, I placed an ad on craig's list with no return email address. The only way to apply for the job was to solve a trivial programming problem. Solving the problem gave you the email address to send your portfolio to. I got no recruiter responses. I did get responses from people across the country who didn't want the job, but had fun with the puzzle. Those weren't a waste of time for me because I generally enjoy talking to fellow developers.

Puzzles may be silly. But, they can also be a lighthearted way to do a first screening of potential candidates. And, I honestly feel better about having people program something I can't use for financial gain - that way I don't feel I'm taking advantage of people that I have not yet hired or paid.

If you took your time to go through scribd's ('the fruity game' authors) blog and info you would see that they are a company that looks for people exactly opposite from you. They race go carts inside the offices, challenge other people in simple AI programming and do a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with coding, deploying or 'helping to solve real problems'. They do it in free time because it's fun, and they want similar people around the office. And this is probably the case for most of the companies that have similar ways of attracting employees

Sometimes you need to do things simply to exercise yourself.

Would you rag on joggers because for all their running they always end up back in the same place?

I agree - at first it was novel and interesting that some companies would give you a puzzle to solve. As I've gotten older, and as my time has increased in value, I'm not as interested in solving a problem just because someone gives it to me. I like to create value, not merely create code.

for many people it's a game. they have no desire to join scribd, they just want to compete in a fun contest against other programmers. if you don't want to play, don't, but don't sneer at the people who do want to.