Didn't Pass Interview Coding Challenge -- Okay to Ask Why? | Hacker News Reader

Didn't Pass Interview Coding Challenge -- Okay to Ask Why?

8 pointsjdas15 comments

I recently went through the interview process at a small company. As part of their hiring process, after I spoke to their in-house recruiter, I was sent a coding challenge that I felt I completed successfully, but was swiftly sent the "thanks but no thanks" e-mail. I've asked a couple people to review my work, and they couldn't find anything directly wrong with it that would result in an immediate no-hire.

Is it appropriate to reply to the rejection e-mail, asking for some sort of justification as to what I did wrong?

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I wouldn't worry too much about it. Ive had a very similar thing happen with a small company a couple years ago - I submitted the verified correct solution and got a rejection letter to not come in for an in-person because I didn't style my code according to some BS guideline they use internally but didn't elude to in the instructions.

I honestly was happy that I wasn't selected. I can't imagine how many decent candidates they pass up if it is their normal operation. I'd much rather work for a place focused on solutions rather than coding style (I've been at a place where people argued over curly brackets all day - its horrifying especially when funding gets tight).

Funnily enough, I was browsing jobs about 6 months back and that small company still has the same job opening available a year and a half later.

Speaking as a programmer, I'd love to provide feedback as to why potential employees weren't thought to be a good fit.

Speaking as an employer, responding to such a request opens one up to all sorts of legal challenges.

Net result: on the advice of our legal consultants we never provide feedback.

I personally think this is a tragedy, but it's a direct result of the litigious nature of today's society, and the aggressive nature of some people.

But consider this. If it's a small company and they responded so swiftly to code that you (and others) thought was fine, would you be happy working there anyway?

Of course, if you don't ask, you don't get. Why not phrase it carefully to show that you accept that you haven't got the job, but you are keen to learn from the experience, and would welcome any comments about your code, understanding that this cannot form the basis of any kind of action against them.

Thanks for the thoughts. How about something like:

Hey Guys:

Thank you very much for the opportunity to interview with <COMPANY>. While I understand that you don't view me as a good fit to work with you guys, I would greatly appreciate knowing what was incorrect about my submission, such that I can continue developing my skills to ultimately attain a point where we are a good fit for each other.

Thank you very much,

That sounds fine. I'd make a few small adjustments, but it has to be your words. Here I've tried to make it clear that their decision has been accepted, and acknowledge that there's nothing in it for them to provide the feedback:

Hey Guys: Just wanted to say thanks for the opportunity to interview with you. I recognize and understand that for whatever reason you decided I'm not a good fit, and accept that. I was wondering, though, if there'd be any chance of some feedback about my submission. I know that this would take some time and effort on your behalf for no real return, but I'd really appreciate anything you'd care to tell me about my submission. I'm always eager to learn and develop my skills, and perhaps you can help me become a better programmer, and possibly become a good fit for the future.

Yours etc

There is a chance that you were right on everything, there is also a chance that the question was more vague than what you've thought and you didn't answer exactly what they were looking for.

If you are curious than I would send them a very polite email thanking them for their time and ask where you can improve on your code. If you are asking them for help they will be more likely to respond in hopes of you walking away with a good experience interviewing with them.

I had a phone interview a little while back where the interviewer asked various technical questions and then, if I struggled a bit, would help explain things, and if I got it wrong would give me an answer / explanation after each. The position was a bit outside my skill-set as it involved some technical areas that I don't have much experience with, so I found this helpful. I didn't end up moving forward with them, I don't think it was a fit on either side, but it was cool how he took the time to explain things and I actually felt like I walked away learning a bit more than I knew going in.

It could be many things. Your solution may have worked but that is only a small portion of the task. When we were hiring ages ago we'd look at style, formatting, structure, etc. This is especially true for a small company. The place I use to work at was small with only a handful developers that were really passionate and opinionated. We often had discussions about simple indentation or placement of a bracket in code that could go for hours. When we hired people it was important they fit in into this culture.

by this culture, do you mean a dysfunctional one? The braces / indentation formatting argument is one that has come up in a place I used to work (on many occasions) and generally it seems to be this is indicative of people focusing on the wrong things, I still don't understand why, when there are so many larger issues to address, that this comes up time and time again, in the case of the company I worked for, this was just the tip of the iceberg as seemingly every topic would devolve into a meandering, pointless "discussion" (argument) where if they would just stick with known conventions a lot of wasted time would be saved.

Actually in my experience it is always the small details that make a product great. Granted, source code indentation is probably not one of them but it was indicative of a group of people that really cared about their work. You tackle the larger problem by solving small ones. I have always found people that focus solely on the "big picture" then to miss it entirely.

Its a convention vs configuration issue, some people seem to prefer configuration where they tinker around with every detail, this seems to be prevalent with Java as it has a background of "configuration over convention", it seems. Sure, its my opinion, but I prefer not to sit around debating about a problem where there is no real benefit of one over the other, where its really just a matter of personal preference, like in the case of code indenting.

Personally I'd regard it as a bit unfair to be rejected just on the grounds of code formatting. I've changed my indentation style before to meet a "house style" and would do so again if asked.

In my opinion it would be more useful to see if the candidate seems prepared to change and has thought about the reasons for their style choice.

(Plus I admit I probably should know the precedence rules for my languages of choice off by heart, but sometimes it's easier just to put extra parentheses in than wait for a compilation error or, worse, an inscrutable bug - especially if you're up against the clock or being watched in an in-person interview)

I completely agree. I really meant to say that we looked for someone who was passionate about coding and they could defend their style/structure because they cared. We always worked in the style/structure of the original author because the code should be consistent. That is more important over personal preference.

Our arguments over small things like indentation were heaps of fun because everybody there was really passionate. It was never about enforcing it because it is the one and only way to do it. Stubbornness on matters like that is not good.

If the company hires someone, they may shut down the interview pipeline and tell everyone else 'tbnt' with no explanation. There's lots of reasons either side could end the interview process. It's not helpful to reply to the email unless they specifically said that your submission was wrong, and any reply will probably just be ignored.

Post the challenge and your answer here, see what feedback HN can give you. Probably better than the company anyway.

Chances are very good they're really not hiring, but wish to continue to have a Kabuki theater appearance of hiring.

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