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Comment by ipaddr | Hacker News Reader

With 20 years of experience and plenty of references? And you think a take home test is the way to filter out someone so resourceful?

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It’s a way, and it helps some. I thought about it and discussed with my peers and teams and it seemed useful. I liked it over alternatives like having people write in real time, or submit a portfolio, or so an in depth project.

A 15-30 minute exercise seemed like the best filter that optimized my time and the applicants.

if you don’t have code projects of your own then that is a much bigger red flag than inability to do timed leetcode style interviews

Some applicants don’t have projects they can show. I’d say half have GitHub profiles, but there’s still lots of good programmers at my org who have zero projects they can show to a potential employer. I’m not ready to write them all off, yet.

And my exercise isn’t leetcode, nor is it timed. I just designed it so it doesn’t take a lot of time because time isn’t important for this filter.

And some applicants don't have time and should not be required to grind leetcode.

If you went through a decent 4-year CS program you will have been required to do coding projects, so if you have NO code to show, either you went to a shit program, OR you cannot write code.

It doesn't matter if you have a github. I have lots of code and very little in github because I don't want to open source it.

I cannot imagine how someone can be a good programmer yet NEVER has written any code they can show. So did they have time to spend 6 months grinding leetcode but didn't even write a simple application? That makes no sense to me.

"I just designed it" = it makes sense to me and if anyone else is unable to understand my quirky problem then they can't write software. OK.

if you didn’t work on a project during your CS degree or before then i don’t understand why you think you should be hired anywhere.

Maybe you are replying to wrong comment. I am not suggesting anything. I am asking the question if it is often the case that someone who is applying to programming job truly does not know how to program.

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