Ask HN: Should developers collectively refuse to take coding challenges?

2 points·egfx··4 comments

An increasing thing I'm seeing is these coderpad like challenges in interviews. And now I'm beginning to see it in roles that are not exactly purely development focused.

When I was applying to jobs years ago, this has never been a factor. Noone watched my computer screen while I coded some algorithm.

I have a background and projects that speak for themselves. Is this not enough to showoff?

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I think this sort of collective action is unlikely.

Why do they bother you so much? Watching someone code is a pretty good way to see how they think about a problem. Seems pretty straightforward that if you want to hire someone to do a thing, you might want to see how they do the thing first.

Evaluating based on past projects is tough because you don't know if/how much help they've had from collaborators. Could have forked someone elses project and renamed it. A surprisingly high number of people apply to software jobs who literally don't know how to code.

It would be nice to use your background instead of coding, but there are enough people that can't seem to do it in real time that it feels like testing this way reveals something. Imagine making a writer write a few pages right on the spot, it would be kind of silly. And what if you say you can't use a dictionary, you have to use our typewriter, and you can't look things up on the internet. You must spell correctly.

I just don't like coding challenges about algorithm and data structures. I know more about API design, infrastructure and web security.

I'm refusing them sometimes, or I spend a few hours and if it's not going good, I go do something else.

I'm tired of proving myself.

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