My 2nd take-home challenge, and an online coding test
Tags: beginners, career, interview
Published: 2019-08-11 12:00:15

---
title: My 2nd take-home challenge, and an online coding test
published: true
description: 
tags: beginners, careers, interview
---

<h3>Take-home challenge 2</h3>

<p>So a few weeks back I wrote about my first take home challenge and what I got out of it.  This week I was asked to look at one for another job, it was a little different in that it involved using a framework (rather than vanilla JS), and also tested some more skills like authorisation and connecting to API endpoints on a database.</p>

<p>The company in question is changing their whole front-end from Microsoft stack to Vue.  With that in mind the test came with a Vue template which you could use, or a guide to what the finished product would look like if you wanted to build it in a framework you were more familiar with (like React, for example).  The idea was to show your problem-solving in JavaScript so there was a free choice.  I'd had a really enthusiastic discussion with the company over the phone about Vue, so I checked out a really nice basic intro series of blogs on here by @marinamosti.   It looked really cool, I was excited to check it out so I decided to use the template and learn a bit about Vue at the same time.</p>

<p>In hindsight that was a bit silly.  Once cool thing I gathered about Vue is that it largely handles the routing for you, by looking at the pages folder and creating a route for every file inside.  A bit like Next, which I also think is pretty interesting. However, if you're coming from React you will notice that some things are really different - there's no JSX for instance: the HTML, CSS and JS are split, more like the traditional style of coding. </p>

<p>My big takeaway from this exercise is that a code challenge is not the time to teach yourself a new framework even if you have a template to get you started.  In fact trying to build on a template probably made it worse because there were some files missing that I was expecting to see, and there were others that I couldn't figure out whether I needed to use them or not.  There was a folder called 'store' (with lots of code in), which I assumed was state management, like with Redux.  A quick web search introduced me to 'Vuex' and then I felt a bit more overwhelmed.</p>

<strong>Conclusion:</strong>
<ol>
<li>If you get offered the chance to write a code challenge in a language or framework you know, take it.</li>
<li>Vue actually does look really cool.  My 'to-learn' list just got longer.</li>
<li>Keep perspective in mind: a senior dev would be expected to build this app in half a day.</li>
</ol>

<h3>Online coding test</h3>

<p>The other thing I did for a different company was an online coding test, where you write out all the code to solve a couple of problems (in whatever language you choose) and then when you hit submit, the answers go straight to the company so they can have a look. The questions were like what you would find on Codewars.  </p>

<p>Unfortunately for me, and for a lot of other people, these kinds of tests are not where I thrive.  I enjoy working through puzzles on Codewars, and I can build apps in my own time, but put me in a timed situation like that and I go to pieces - sweaty palms, fuzzy head, panic!  They gave 3 questions and a recommended maximum time you should spend working in total.  I pretty much used all this on the first two questions and fried my brain, so sadly I didn't get to do the third question.  </p>

<p>I also had a pretty traumatic mock technical interview a few weeks ago: my mind just went totally blank - stuff I'd learnt just to get into bootcamp and used again in the pre-work was just...gone!  I beat myself up because I should have this stuff locked down, but my mum tells me the whole family is like that so I'm going to say that technically it's their fault not mine 😊 (then go practise objects some more). </p>

<strong>Conclusion:</strong>
<ol>
<li>You cannot over-practise the basics.  The more you do something, the easier it should be to recall later.</li>
<li>Give yourself a break:  This time last year you didn't really know what an object was, then you found out some people call it a hash and some people call it a dictionary.</li>
<li>You are not stupid, just remember to breathe.  Some people work well under stress, others don't.  We are all programmed a little differently and that's just how it is.</li>
</ol>

<p>I love reading posts from people about how they also get stressed in these situations.  I realise that sounds sadistic.  It's not that I enjoy seeing other people having a hard time, but rather that it reminds me that lots of us feel like this, but we shouldn't let it devalue our sense of self-worth.  Give me a 😀 or a 👋 in the comments if you feel the same way, and let's ride the struggle-bus together till it gets to our stop.</p>