skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Sort of surprised to see most of the comments on here actually defending the companies that put so much weight on these types of tests.

I think many people assume that interviewers are looking for "thought process" but from my experience as a hiring manager for 6 years, in reality you'll find that most are just looking to "gotch-ya" the candidate. Many interviewers seem to enjoy making a candidate "sweat" as some source of pride. Again, not saying everyone does this, but often times programmer interviewers believe that the harder and more obscure a programming question is the better.

We should all agree that coding tests are helpful in assessing a candidate's programming capabilities, but not all coding tests are equal.

From my experience, bad coding tests that have little relation to whether a candidate will do a good job are these arbitrary ones. For example:

* Implement a merge/quick/radixx sort algorithm that you maybe did 10 years ago in college and have never had to do since.

* Implement a linked list/hashmap/some other random data structure in Java even though you would never write on yourself.

* Write a program to determine whether a string is a palindrome.

* Implement an algorithm to solve this random problem from Project Euler

Ones that have been worked better attempt to be comparable to what they actually might do in the company:

* FizzBuzz - (While controversial, this helps weed out people who just don't know how to code)

* Build a JSON REST API in whatever language you want to manage groceries in a shopping cart.

* Write a web scraper in whatever language you want to count the most popular words on a website

* Here is a random UI framework that you have never used, use whatever documentation you can find on the web and write a To Do list application with it.

Again, YMMV, and depending on your domain certain questions make more sense to ask than others. If you're interviewing as a researcher for Google/Amazon/IBM/Microsoft, then you actually might need to know how to implement some random sorting algorithm because it may be what you will need to implement it in some new SDK/library. But I don't believe that for most companies this makes sense.

If you are a hiring manager, ask yourself this: If you had to run one of your current (positive) team members through your current interview process, would they make it through? Would they say they had a positive interview experience?
> its just background noise and get filtered out

I'm not convinced many do that effectively. Definitely not with ADHD, which seems highly overrepresented in dev and IT generally, as there's no filter.

ALL distraction and noise is distracting to me though meds mitigate, as is happening to glance at my coffee mug, or noticing some movement as someone goes to the kitchen. If it's a small group, 2-4 is my preferred, conversation seems to settle on discussion of ideas, design and relevant topics, and settles into a rhythm. I prefer having someone to bounce ideas off. Much of the time the group is head down working - sometimes a little too much such that you start to feel it's getting unnaturally quiet round here.

If it's a large open plan space with all functions, or a small group of disparate workers, now everything is a distraction and pulls me out of focus all the time. There's no natural rhythm, or quiet spells, tied to the work. My focus is pulled to the support call, or the different product, or the discussion of golf (A game I have no interest in) way over there.

I know non-ADHD people have a filter, but they usually seem similarly affected, just not quite as much. Before meds I would be distracted by them being distracted. Fun times. :)
I agree with that too. I don't know how to get politicians that have genuine desires to help people and I think part of that is because if we did find them, they would be voted out because they didn't do anything. I think that it might be too late right now because unless that politician could prove what they were doing before hand, the media would tear them apart.
I slightly agree with basing teachers off performance, but measuring that performance with tests that change every year is not the best way. Possibly make a test that doesn't constantly change - every little bit to correct something (clearly the problems need reworded and such) if you're teaching kids, the test should fall in line with what is being taught. Teaching for a test is fundamentally flawed because not only does it lower the chance anyone actually learned anything, it also creates a neuroticism in both teachers and students.
Something definitely needs done. Removing a few tests and school days from the calendar probably wouldn't do much; it may make everyone happier, though.
You're fundamentally misunderstanding what I and others are saying.

We're talking about the opposite of cowering away. We're talking about the exact community building you value - both out there and back at home.

You're also clearly writing with a chip on your shoulder. I don't know what bad experience created that chip, but I'm not interested in fighting you or putting down your own experience. Please try to offer the same in return.
How the CIA Watched Over the Destruction of Gary Webb (2014)
Without parenthesis (requires 8 characters though):

http://centime.org/jsfsck/
You're right. It's possible to use it later on but I've removed it as it doesn't make sense being at that point in the post chronologically. Thanks!
That was Mozilla's action plan, this is Wosign's response, now it is back in Mozilla's court.
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I loathe algorithm questions, and I almost always never ask them when I'm interviewing a candidate. Too often have I seen candidates who ace 6 rounds of algorithm interviews, only to struggle when it comes to building actual products and require a ton of handholding.

On the other hand, I've seen candidates who fail interviews that are algorithm heavy, but have done exceptionally well when it comes to the practical world - doing actual work and building apps and contributing to the team instead of writing the next (insert your fav tricky algorithm question here) solver.

It's unfortunate that while many companies that are hiring are just run-of-the-mill SaaS and apps companies that don't require you as an engineer to use algorithms or DP on a daily basis (or even ever), you still see algorithm heavy interviews at these companies.

On Hackerrank, I don't necessarily hate it as a tool, but just the questions that get asked through it. I don't like that it automates an interview process to a certain extent, as a candidate's potential and skills and experience and fit in the team can't exactly be measured via an automated process but requires actual human to human interaction. If a company rejects you on the basis of failing a Hackerrank question and hasn't even talked to you, you're better off working for a different company.
Is this a presentation on a unikernel that can run docker (MirageOS/Hyperkit)?

Interesting, I was looking into running single daemons (e.g.: nginx) as a unikernel (through rump kernels). This is certainly something different!

Edit: doing some research it simply seems that Hyperkit/MirageOS are supplementing docker (via Alpine Linux). I may still be missing something just by looking at the slides.
Standing + adjustable standing desk do I can sit or stand.

Moving my feet - "fidgeting" to avoid frozen body patterns. Taking frequent breaks and rigorous walks at the advise of my father who is a cardiovascular surgeon.
"Come freelance with us for a week" seems even worse to me.

For starters, there is a very small and fairly specific subset of the population that can afford to carve out a whole week for an extended interview, even if you do pay them for their time.
>Unfortunately, probability and stats are not easy to teach, and even many professional scientists / researchers have major confusions about the subjects. Common sense actually provides a decent enough guide for most people (i.e a baseball player with a high batting average is more likely to hit the ball).

I'm not sure how much I agree.

Sure, the math and the principles involved in designing scientific studies etc. can get pretty complicated. But there are a number of fairly basic ideas that could be usefully taught. And I'd argue that many people don't have a great common sense view of stats and probability. Sure, they have some idea of what batting average means--though there are lots of interesting sabermetric discussions to be had around baseball measurements--but there are also many well-known and consistent biases that many people have. For example, around ideas like streaks.

I've argued before and continue to believe that a semester long intro-level course on stats and probability that didn't get overly wrapped up in a lot of complex equations would be more useful at the high school level than some of the ways that time is used today.
If it's similar to another article, I'd love to see it. I wrote this over the last two days using only the sources noted at the bottom of the post.
This is from 2014 and has already been discussed (~300 comments on HN): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7353767

See also: https://henrikwarne.com/2014/09/04/a-response-to-why-most-un...
One of the things that always interests me around our industry is this.

I'm wondering how other industries do it, I mean, once Doctors get their medical license, if they want to move to a different clinic or hospital, do they have to attend an interview demonstrating their knowledge, doing a whiteboard session on a "Dr House" style medical problem that they have to diagnose in < 10 minutes?

Or do they present their medical credentials, and get interviewed on their bedside manner, their ability to work in a team (if applicable), anecdotes about their past experiences etc?
I'm not able to view anything with Google Chrome Version 53.0.2785.143 m, on a corporate locked-down Win 7 machine.
Hacking on noisy trading floors is great fun
Free Wi-Fi passwords at airports around the world
If you're an avid newsreader you could be forgiven in thinking that the world is diving headfirst into becoming a burnt-out hellscape, but that's really not the case -- its just that our personal access to information is a lot better now.

I mean don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of horrible shit in the world (hold on to this for a second). In the last hundred years infant mortality and absolute poverty cratered, literacy is skyrocketing, the impact of war has gone into freefall. In most places things like slavery and the more horrific diseases have been all but wiped out, and far (far!) more people than ever actually have at least a modicum of control over their lives.

Which is not to say things are perfect. There's still so much work to be done. If you want to start feeling better about it, start volunteering. Put in time at a homeless shelter, or food bank, or if you have a skill find a way to use it in helping the needy in your community. If a program you think will help doesn't exist where you are, start one.
Because we need people to pay attention and not fast forward through it. I'm not saying it's logical.
> you probably shouldn't hire people with ASD/AD(H)D for example

Which may be illegal to do as it's disability discrimination in many countries.

Edit: Of course sufferers are under no obligation to mention ADHD prior to hiring.
Ditto on the Feldenkrais method. Worked with a practitioner to resolve an RSI.

Rewrites how your body perceives itself and addresses the movement / freezing habits which cause injuries.
Ditto on this. Someone who is passionate about algorithms outside of just memorizing interview problems i.e - they find problems like this - http://codeforces.com/contest/724/problem/G - interesting, usually have high problem solving and mathematical aptitude.

Perhaps I'd like to draw a distinction between genuine algorithms problems that you haven't seen before, and the really bad interview questions like "Find a cycle in a linked list". You'd be really hard pressed to find anyone who could solve the problem above.

Edit: To clarify, I would not remotely consider the linked Codeforces problem as a good interview problem.
For people with 5+ years of experience (like OP), I look at and talk about their portfolio; he did actually built stuff that runs in production, so let's see how that came to be. And show parts you have written and are proud of. We are probably in that interview because your skill set matches (somewhat) the problems we are trying to solve, hence your past projects will have similarities with our projects. That interests me. I can find out if you are a self starter, if you have any business sense by chance, management/tutor potential etc. That you can solve some complex thing in 5 minutes is of no interest to me at all, ever.
> If you want to reduce your test mass, the number one thing you should do is look at the tests that have never failed in a year and consider throwing them away. They are producing no information for you — or at least very little information. The value of the information they produce may not be worth the expense of maintaining and running the
tests.

This seems.. entirely unreasonable to me. Just because some area of code is not touched frequently doesn't mean that we should throw out tests pertaining to that section of code. Can someone justify this to me? This seems like a _terrible_ mistake.
Here's how I was assessed for my job at Pivotal:

1. I did a simple tech screen (the RPI). 1 hour. My interviewer had a laptop and asked me questions about what to do next in the scenario.

2. Hey, come pair with this engineer on this real code on a real project on a real task.

3. How about lunch?

4. Hey, let's have you pair with this other engineer on real code on a real project on a real task.

5. Get offered a job on my way out the door.

I know from feedback that we don't always do this right, that we sometimes drop the ball, that many people find the RPI or the pairing to be frustrating, intimidating, or uncomfortable.

Most importantly, many people find that they just don't want to work the way we prefer. Which is good! It saves them the unhappiness of committing to a situation that won't enjoy.

But the core insight is: the best way to see if someone can work alongside us on a real problem is to ask them to come in to work alongside us on a real problem.

It's the best proxy we have short of hiring you. When it's available as an option to do this, I don't understand why anyone would choose a less accurate proxy.
How much faster does what run? In terms of raw performance, Eagle is not faster than Tcl (i.e. since it's an interpreter running on a virtual machine rather than C code running much closer to the hardware).
I don't mind algorithms and brain teasers if they are presented well. As in the interviewer makes it clear they aren't looking for a single right answer but want observe how you solve a problem. Plus I enjoy a good puzzle.

My problem with hackerrank is that the problem statements are often unclear and have artificially short deadlines. I feel like it forces my to use unreadable and sloppy coding to just get any solution out the door before the timer runs out.
I went to a private school, where the only CS class was game programming; and it was offered as an art elective [0]. The class itself was very much a programming class, requiring only a couple of supplemental lunch time classes to be prepared for the AP exam [1].

[0] According to the teacher, the class was originally planned as offering a CS credit; but was changed to art when they realized that a CS credit is not a graduation requirement, while art credits were.

[1] This was not out of the norm for my school. The only class that was designed for the AP was calculus.
fade.php or fade.js add the CSS opacity to the <body>

see the examples
This Is cool! Is it easy to convert a mediawiki to the graph store your system reads?
Just to add two points that bother me the most:

1. It doesn't actually test my ability. Most of the time there is a stackoverflow solution and I'm going to just look it up and regurgitate it. I can't remember where I read this but allegedly it took Knuth a day of thinking to come up with the most optimal solution for one of the presented challenges (it was either the maximum subarray sum or stock sell problem).

2. It's all very well preparing for these interviews at my age (under 30, no responsibilities or family, generous severance from my previous employer), however, what happens 10 years down the line with responsibilities and hungry mouths to feed.
People die and kill for just a few square meters of land, you're delusional if you think the Russian nation will just let itself be destroyed without fighting back. Nominal GDP is not a good way to measure wealth, GDP PPP, industrial output and other stats are better. Russia is not a superpower but no one can deny that Russia is an industrial power. Your hate of Russia disgust me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_first_use#Russia
jacques_chester: You're absolutely right that recreating things bit-for-bit identical can require some real elbow grease. I had to overcome bugs in the Tiny C compiler (tcc) and gcc to make them work, as described in the paper. Date/time stamps can create problems too.

But all these problems are quite doable. Nobody claims that gcc is small, yet I managed to get that working. Compiler makers can follow a few guidelines to make it much easier, see: http://www.dwheeler.com/trusting-trust/dissertation/html/whe...
Check out the graph at the Debian Reproducible Builds project at https://wiki.debian.org/ReproducibleBuilds - yes, some packages don't reproduce bit-for-bit, but they've made a tremendous amount of progress and managed it for most packages.

You can see some related information at this page: http://www.dwheeler.com/trusting-trust/ including a video of me discussing the paper.
Isn't that how most industries work, from flipping burgers to the legal profession? Why should tech be any different?
The language manual: http://dimakrasner.com/szl
Humans have two copies of ~3 Billion base pairs. A reasonable error rate of DNA replication (not under stress) is about 1 write error in 1 billion reads. Many of those errors are actually immediately corrected by post-replication error correction mechanisms. Also, as cells divide, errors that happen early will be propagated more times than errors that happen late in development. Further, mutations are not uniformly distributed though the genome. A human has > 10^14 cells, so any given human might have a few thousand different variants among its cells. The error rates of human polymerase is way less than a bacterial polymerase. And a human genome is way larger than a bacterial (or viral) genome. Viruses actually have mechanisms to increase the error rate of DNA replication.

For a human, you would need a LOT more than a single human to have a variant at each position. Something like HIV can actually have a small enough genome, a high enough error rate, and a large enough population in an infected patient, that it can realistically have a unique variant at each position in its genome within a single human host.
I'm not really addressing this to you, I just have a lot of thoughts on this.

I feel bad about the downvotes in individual cases, but the culture of easy, repetitive, or just plain bad jokes is a big part of what turned Slashdot from my favorite site into a cesspit that wasn't worth visiting, so I think they're a necessary mechanism.

The trick for this site is to make a good joke. If the topic is well-worn, it has to be a great joke. If you're not sure if it's a good joke, it probably isn't. I base this on the fact that most people simply aren't funny. There's no shame in that, it's just true.

I'm assuming the OP joke is a reference of some sort since I don't get it. A good rule of thumb is that references aren't jokes at all, they're references, so posting them here will probably get you a downvote. This is also true of puns and memes, both from broader culture and more traditional nerd quarters.

And just to be clear, I didn't downvote the OP, but I would have if it weren't already grey by the time I saw it.
Not many within a team that is hiring either have the time or skills to assess candidates. Employers are looking for a magic solution to fulfill their staffing needs.

Companies such as Hackerrank have thereby managed to convince employers that they have the solution to all the hiring problems. Essentially a magic wand which would enable them to hire Einsteins.
The Effect of DNS on Tor's Anonymity
It's true, but all of those games are... well...

Zachtronics doesn't pull any punches. Their games are amazing. Even the deceptively simple Infinifactory is actually full of amazing and beautiful opportunities for elegant programming concepts (the first time you realize, "I can... I can make a clock with controllably variable periodicity!? What?" And TIS-100 resembles programming in a stripped down Erlang-like mode.

HRM is a great starter into the Genre, it's sure. But Spacechem is on a totally different level of complexity and beauty and depth.
As someone who has been on both ends, it definitely is not an employer's market for engineers. The ones who meet a high quality bar usually can get an offer almost anywhere they want, and can easily choose to dismiss the employer wooing them if they don't meet their bar.
In real life, I agree. But if I'm trying to solve an array sorting problem, why can't they just give me an array? LeetCode does it and it works fine. I get to focus on how to sort the array.

The other commenter (natdempk) makes some good points though.
Damn, I'm simultaneously excited and sad now. I hope it survives as open source so I can use it for my next project.
I have met many people in my life who are/were way better than me in chalking out algorithmic solutions but didn't even had a single bit of knowledge how computers and real softwares work. Many of these people are not good team players, don't understand the importance of delivering things, or simply aren't interested in the work they are doing.

On other side, I have also met many people who are extremely good at competitive programming and extremely good at their workplaces also.

So taking these two as suppositions, I have concluded that competitive programming skill is not something which can't be relied upon as a judgement factor for a good candidate.

Note- I once used to be a good competitive programmer during my college so I have seen both sides of it.
As a fellow embedded guy, my problems are usually something stupid simple that I assumed was true, but wasn't.

An example, 'why won't this chip work!?', 5 hours later and a full driver written, 'oh, I just didn't turn on this one pin. now it works great!'.

Also, in relation to your last sentence, assuming that the hardware you have (resistor and capacitor values) are the same as what is in the schematic.
If Chinese were Phonetic
Why would your wife need to finish projects if you do that part?

Isn't she just preventing a pipeline stall?