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

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by hi65435@discuss.tchncs.de to c/experienced_devs@programming.dev

36 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] hi65435@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 year ago

Good point, I fully agree with you. Didn't come up with it myself but it has been used for years already but I think HR also complained about it.

Actually I did the challenge a year ago and it was only circumstantial that I didn't decline. Yet, we need a good replacement for the challenge (or the whole interview process) because most of the workload is on me at the moment.

this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023

41 points (88.7% liked)

Experienced Devs

3956 readers

1 users here now

A community for discussion amongst professional software developers.

Posts should be relevant to those well into their careers.

For those looking to break into the industry, are hustling for their first job, or have just started their career and are looking for advice, check out:

Logo base by Delapouite under CC BY 3.0 with modifications to add a gradient

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

snowe@programming.dev

jmk1ng@programming.dev

drewsiferr@programming.dev