Product hacker at HackerRank 
Our goal: Build a platform for hackers to solve interesting programming problems in various domains of Computer Science.

How is it different from existing programming challenges site like Topcoder/ACM, etc?

Most of the programming sites focus on a similar type of algorithmic challenges which appeal to college students but not so much once you start working in a company. In essence, the users of the sites have graduated but the sites haven't. We're building a superset of these sites in different domains of CS and related areas which would not only serve as a fun place to code but also to practically learn different techniques.

For e.g.: we're going through different course materials on AI to build our first set of challenges in the AI track. The first problem is a simple single player bot-clean game (https://www.hackerrank.com/challenges/botclean) and the level-10 is a complex strategy based Anti-Chess (https://www.hackerrank.com/challenges/antichess). The higher levels would soon have real-world problems contributed by companies/professors/PhD's

Why would a hacker solve challenges?

Every problem solver has one type of challenge in a particular domain that he/she loves to solve. That could be AI, Security, databases, Algorithmic trading, etc. We're building a large collection of really interesting problems with progressively increasing difficulty such that there's at least one challenge in a certain difficulty level that'll attract a problem solver.

Do you get hackers who are non-students on your site?

Yes, quite a lot of them. A lot of VP's, CTO's of 50-100 member company are our users. There are a ton of positive signs that help us in our growth.

How do we make money?

#1:
We will host themed contests (Eg: HackerRank's Big data challenge) which would be sponsored by relevant companies. Post the contest, if any of the participants would like to connect with companies, we'll make an intro. From the contests we've conducted in the past, usually ~8-10% express interest in connecting with companies The ROI works out well for companies and most importantly ensures we remain as a non-spammy site for programmers. They can peacefully hang out optimizing their algorithms.

#2:
Similar to the Netflix AI challenge, a company could post a challenge on the site to be solved with a prize money attached to it.

How big can you get?

There are 1M full stack programmers across the globe (src: Joel spolsky podcast) and about 1/3rd are in US in various job roles. Each programmer is worth (salary + stocks + incentives) say $100k-$1M, so the market size we're after would be on average $(1M x 500k)/3 ~ $167B just in US. This might be a typical slide in a VC deck but you get the idea - it's pretty big.

Why should you work with us?

Apart from the fact that we're a young startup, pay well, equity options, funded by YC/Khosla ventures, etc. the biggest add-on is building something that is intellectually gratifying for smart people which is a tough challenge. If you'd like to stay sharp forever, join us.

What'd you be working on?

Your focus is on two important metrics - Engagement (time spent and interaction) and retention (churn factor). We listen to our users a lot and been doing a bunch of experiments on our site - bot-vs-bot games, real-world challenges, etc. which has made thousands of users happy. Imagine if you grew this number by 100x or 1000x? In one-line your role is to build (or kill) components on the site that'll grow both the metrics.

>Analyzing engagement and retention metrics, feedback from users and base product decisions on them

>Running experiments/coding some components of the product to grow the two data points.

>Detailed product specifications that'll help designers and hackers to execute more ideas and make it live

What are we looking for?

>You have coded extensively in the past and continue to build stuff for fun

>You understand the way hackers think and what they enjoy, and you are able to translate ideas into how it should reflect on the website

>Explicit mention of some of the earlier products you've worked on - what changes you made and how they affected the business value

>Experience working in user growth teams in the past is a huge plus

>You are very numbers obsessed and the first thing you wake up to is an analytics dashboard

How'd this site be when it grows?

If you took the strongest component of every problem solver's brain (problem solving) and put together at one place, that's how a graphical equivalent will look like. It'll be one of the most valuable and powerful site.

Interested? E-mail us: hackers [at] hackerrank.com