Show HN: Coderust – Prepare for Programming Interviews | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Coderust – Prepare for Programming Interviews

coderust.com

71 pointsusmanghani41 comments

Why do you support everything except the PC :)

As someone prepping for interviews, I'd have loved to give this a shot if it was on the web.

Ditto. Why on earth would one want to develop on a tablet or phone? Even for toy interview problems they make awful dev environments. Between lack of a physical keyboard, tiny screen, slow processor, no VM support, no IDEs to speak of, and no mature command line environment they're dead in the water. A complete non-starter. You can't draw a diagram on them, typing symbols on them is a mess, and they don't support screen-sharing worth a damn, even in the stone-age sense of having two people standing side by side staring at the same thing. As hypothetical interview tools they're literally worse than a piece of paper or whiteboard. Which is probably why I've never seen them used as interview tools.

It boggles my mind that the authors of this app prioritized iOS and android support, let alone made it iOS/android exclusive. You guys had me convinced and ready to sign up. And then I find out you don't support the platform it makes most sense for you to support. Madness.

This should not be an app - it should be a service, billed at $12/year (or $10 for a 3 month pass), with fresh content/languages added regularly. This would turn your company into something potentially investable, and would give you a steadily increasing stream of income. You'd also be able to increase the price over time as you add more and more value to your offering.

This should also be a web app, as many people have pointed out to you. As awesome as mobile is, web is still easier to share and convert users on, and while everyone has a web machine, not everyone has a tablet.

Yes! I'd pay 10$ a year for it or 8 for 2 month.

Sounds neat. Has anyone here tried it? I might buy it if people think it's really good.

I've got to say though, the reviews on the google app store are getting the side-eye from me. Lots of five star reviews that praise the features listed in the marketing. That's not all there is to it, but I'm not quite sure how to convey why they seem fake.. Did anyone else get that feeling?

9 reviews and 1-5 installs.

Not sure how those numbers are generated, but I get the same feeling as you.

Google Play Store hasn't updated the install count since last 48 hours or so. Flurry data is showing about 50 users for paid and about 200 users for lite version (These numbers contain both iOS and Android installs but we are sure that Android downloads are more than 5.

On play store, the ratings and reviews are almost immediately updated but install numbers are not frequently updated. Usually it gets updated once in a day or sometime it takes even more time to update.

At least one of the reviewers posted separate 5-star reviews for the paid and free version on the same day.

Edit: And on more careful inspection, they do say that they bought the paid version after liking the free version. I may have jumped the gun on that one.

I (for one) read through all the reviews and didn't get the feeling that they were fabricated (probably because I personally know 90% of the people and have seen their feedback on other forums (I.e. Facebook).

Having said that, the app. does indeed have some areas for improvement, as enumerated by several folks here. But I think it's an excellent attempt at demystifying some of the recurring programming questions we've all seen (and been stumped on) at one time or another during interviews :)

> probably because I personally know 90% of the people and have seen their feedback on other forums

Hah, no kidding. Fair enough.

You should consider listing the topics it helps you cover, I think it would be a great selling point and help convert visitors to buyers faster.

I noticed one of the slides (not the 1st) contains a blurry phone image in the right corner with what I think might be some sort of table of contents: linked lists, trees, stacks & queues, etc.

Perhaps to keep the description terse you could group the features using something like: 'the most important data structures, problem-solving heuristics and math'.

Why "Code rust"? (The Rust language already has enough problems of confusion with the Rust game.)

I'm guessing it is "rust" as in "rusty," like "my skills are rusty, so I will use coderust to improve them." I did click the link expecting to see something about rust, though, so I guess it's unfortunately a little confusing.

I'm a fan of both Rust the language and Rust the game and didn't even think of them when I saw the name.

I'm building a web app that takes a similar approach (mobile-friendly, you can expose hints as you work through the problem, etc): www.interviewcake.com.

Love to sync up and share notes. My email is in my profile.

I had to look at the screenshots to see if the point of this was to test you on the questions or explain the questions. Exactly what it is could be a lot clearer.

Actually, the other side could be really interesting. The app shows you a problem (like the recognition of a number in a string) and shows you the unit tests. Then you're graded based on how many you pass.

I was a bit skeptical because of the reviews. Tried the lite version and liked it so I ended up paying. The list of questions is impressive although they can go a bit light on the explanation.

I agree with the lack of swipe gesture.

One tip cause it's a big pet peeve of mine: move the images at the top in the a tags. That way you can click on them instead of just the text.

Looks cool, if it works and has good reviews, I'd buy it!

This sort of thing could be useful. I like the format. Not wild about code explanations with 5 clause sentences. This kind of mental juggling is what I love about programming and reading David Foster Wallace, but the writer(s) of the app don't write like my brain or DFW.

I'm just saying, when you are trying to make a dry subject explicable, you need to break up the sentences and make your variable names more distinct.

Thanks for your feedback. We agree that there is always room for improvement. In coming versions, we will be addressing the issues in problem explanations, fixing reported bugs and adding more problems.

Looks neat. I'd buy if it doesn't require internet. Does anyone know if internet is needed to run the app or you can read offline?

The app can run in offline mode. No internet connection is required.

The only time Internet is required is when you buy it from Google Play and run the application for the first time. Connection is required to validate the purchase with Google servers.

Internet is never required for iOS.

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

To echo some earlier comments. As someone currently preparing for an interview, I would definitely like to see a web version.

Can you deal with Python? This is free and available on-line as just a regular static site. (http://interactivepython.org/courselib/static/pythonds/index...).

From what I could tell, it's the full version of 'Problem Solving with Algorithms and Data Structures Using Python 2nd ed', 2011. I haven't read it cover to cover, but it seemed well written. You can read some reviews on the printed version at http://www.amazon.com/Problem-Solving-Algorithms-Structures-...

I've found this site very helpful, and it actually runs and validates your code: http://oj.leetcode.com/

I bought it. I don't like the way it looks in iPad, with the column on the right side that's cut off. I also feel like I should be able to swipe to view it, instead of just pressing the arrow at the bottom. But, otherwise, I like it and I think I'll use it to brush up on some fundamentals. PS, add Ruby!

Why do they need to know my location?

We are using Flurry to track usage (pretty standard among apps) and it uses the location information to show the usage of app by Country and City.

We don't explicitly collect your location information and our privacy policy clearly states that we don't share any information with any one.

Still, when I saw the location requirement, (as I do with many apps) I backed out of trying even the lite version. You guys should consider removing that requirement until you gain more trust from the community.

If it's just getting country/city data, you should only be requesting "course" location permission. You're requesting "fine" location, which will give the user's precise lat/long. You might want to change that.

According to androidpit, they need course location. Not sure how they got this info though.

http://www.androidpit.com/en/android/market/apps/app/com.hes...

android.permission.ACCESS_COURSE_LOCATION

*On the permissions page, it says 'fine location as well'

Selling on a $5 price for quiz question seems much more than I expected.

After all, its free material all over the internet.

Dont really expect to learn anything from a quiz, but to remind of things.

To be honest, I was quite surprised it is "Paid App".

The cost per problem is a lot lower than books that offer the same content, so it seems reasonable.

1) Why is it just an app, with no option to use on the web? 2) You should probably post more details about what this actually, well, does.

Cool concept, would love to try it out.

I would have bought it except I really dislike the font! It looks unprofessional.

I would love to see this on Amazon Android store.

any plans to support more languages?

Yes. We are looking for suggestions on what languages people want. Any feedback or preferred language is appreciated.

I love it!

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