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How to make a coding challenge to hire a new engineer? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/experienced_devs

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We're a very small team with little experience in hiring but got approval for a new engineer. Basically HR will look for people through the usual channels and I think we have a reasonably good job description. Unfortunately the coding challenge (a 30h+ take home) is atrociously difficult and doesn't really reflect what we do. On the other hand I think the false positive rate would be low. FWIW it's a Linux application and it might be difficult to only count on experience from the CV.

Any ideas how to build a good challenge from scratch and what time constraints are reasonable?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve only ever had one job ask me to do a homework style challenge and I thought it was weird and off putting.

I have a full time job, and a family, and a lot of other shit going on. If you give me homework I’m not going to bother with your company.

I feel like giving out homework in a job interview is a good way to filter out anyone who is busy being gainfully employed already, and leaves you with a weaker pool on average to draw from.

Sure there are some stinkers out there, but if you can’t suss that out in an interview that’s on you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

In Europe it's actually quite standard to give take home challenges (1-3h) and leetcode tasks are rare but becoming more common. Also many companies only do 1 or 2 rounds of interviews. (HR and technical) One could also argue that to prepare for leetcode style interviews much more time needs to be invested upfront, at least if it's not easy questions.

I would probably not want to avoid any challenge at all, but 1-2h seems reasonable to me. (live or take home)