Show HN: Interview Challenges to Hire Better | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Interview Challenges to Hire Better

fizzbuzzer.com

46 pointsTimLeland19 comments

I've never felt good about this idea.

I want a human to see my code, someone with whom I can walk through and explain my design decisions. Doing a simple exercise and getting it right vs. wrong doesn't help anyone.

If a company asked me to do quizzes like this for them I likely wouldn't apply.

Sorry to be harsh, I think the idea is a good sell to companies looking to stop wasting devtime on candidates who can't solve these simple exercises. I just think further removing the human factor from the interviewing process is an overall step in the wrong direction.

What about a company that asked you to solve a couple of these on your own time and then talk about your solutions in a phone interview?

I'm curious because this is what we do and I hadn't considered that we might miss some good people because of it.

The part about talking through your solutions over the phone is key - that's the human factor.

It would be nice if you also provide hints to solve the problems as that might help candidates, and also somewhat would resemble phone screen. You might also want to emphasize more on writing code comments over getting the solution 100% correct. I literally hate platforms like codilty where getting solution 100% correct in the defined time is the main motive, rather than understanding the candidates thought process.

Really?

You want to explain your solution? Use headphones and skype at the same time. Problem solved

Beats paying $200 out of your own pocket so you can travel to their HQ an write fizzbuzz live for them (yes this happened to me)

The entire point of this resource is that companies will use it to replace the "skype with employee" part. That's what I disagree with.

I really like that you have challenges aimed at frontend developers. Something Hackerrank is sorely missing.

Thanks! Thats how the idea originally started. I would like to add other challenges if the site gains users.

Well, I have been using frontend development questions in HackerRank for months now. Not sure how you missed that.

Can you point me in the right direction? For the life of me I can't find it in the UI.

Please leave a comment of any feedback, questions or suggestions. Thanks!

Looks good! No results on the third SQL challenge?

    SELECT employees.*, departments.dept_name FROM employees
    JOIN dept_manager ON dept_manager.emp_no = employees.emp_no
    JOIN departments ON departments.dept_no = dept_manager.dept_no

(excluding to_date restriction, but still...)

+1 for the SQL challenge questions.

I would add some customization for employers in the message that you send out with the challenge. I would also set the reply-to / from on the email to match the name and email of the person who is sending it out.

If I were using this for job interviews, one reason I wouldn't use it is because it might scare away potential candidates because the email doesn't appear to be from me.

I find a more effective solution to this problem is viewing code/projects the candidate has completed. No developer I know would jump through these hoops.

A nice idea, though is not easy to implement, it would be a service that lot of companies would love to use and pay for.

Thanks!

What differentiates this from Codility?

Price and simplicity

As a candidate i find codility way over complex.

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