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Comment by anon_tor_12345 | Hacker News Reader

>Places like DRW, which by the way never replied back and I sent in my application two months ago.

DRW is a prop shop with a workload comparable to any FAANG. Most certainty not a place you would be able to coast.

Duly noted, I am just surrounded myself with so much fintech and prop shop business in my city that I've mixed it up with banking.

I interviewed with DRW in Chicago in 2017. I had an interesting experience. They started with a take home programming problem, which they said I could do in any language. The problem was to take a list of tetris moves and give the resulting playfield height. I coded it in ruby because I knew I could write it very quickly. I wrote it using OO style programming, included a full test suite, and added visualization of the board during play. I turned it in early. Their initial feedback was irritation that I had used Ruby. After a day I heard back that they liked my code and would be scheduling further interviews. After a few days they reached out and said that my code "didn't work at all and had mistakes" that had decided to pass.

I don't know why they changed their mind but I'm certain there was nothing wrong with the solution I submitted. I even had a friend check it for me. I suspect they just decided to move forward with a different applicant. Dunno but that was my experience with DRW.

You can use any language you want, as long as it’s Go.

In most cases I would be fine with Hacker Rank tests, but including a full test suite sounds too much for a coding assessment. Also I guess they don't have many Ruby experts at DRW so it took them longer to dissect your code. "Languages don't matter because a tool is just a tool" says the developer... until it's not. Oh well.

Despite my inclination to coast, when it comes to finding work, I've found out that I do better in "trial by fire" situations, than the traditional round-after-round of tests method of evaluating a candidate.

Taking a startup job I had, for example, I was contracted for 40 hrs/week work with just my resume and an informal interview at a coffee shop. No code tests- the founder just wanted to know me in person and I got the job in a week. The pay was low, but the pacing was pretty relaxed for a startup. I can't find many places that hire programmers that easily anymore and that's what makes this so tough.

Some people have trouble learning how to code. I have trouble learning how to interview better.

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