Frustrated with Coding Challenges! Highly Subjective!

GE
ggaj17

Go to company page GE

ggaj17
Mar 5, 2018 27 Comments

I just got interviewed at Lyft for their Self Driving Team. It was an initial coding challenge. We had gone over first 35 minutes over my background and projects. And the last 25 minutes the interviewer gave a coding challenge to solve. I couldn’t finish within 25 minutes. Wrote 75% of the code. However, right after the interview, I spent time, cleaned the code, added error checking, tested and made it super robust and checked into my Github. I sent the Github link and the code to the interviewer. Next day I got the mail that I was rejected.

I was really frustrated. Looks like I was only measured on a coding problem based on my ability to code within the given time. All my 14 years of experience, skills, passion and patents are thrown into trash. I strongly believe only candidates who practiced for interview for weeks or recently coded the same challenge can crack within the 30 minutes. In reality, it definitely takes more than 30 minutes for someone to think and consider all error checking functionality to implement and test with high quality. I would agree speed is important but when we build safety critical systems where peoples lives matter, I would vote for quality over speed, and its OK to take little longer time.

I would be skeptical about trying Lyft self driving cars if they rush to beat competition and don’t have appreciation for quality, safety and security. So, good luck to Lyft team in building self-driving cars.

Do you disagree with my thoughts? Don't you think these interviews are highly subjective?

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TOP 27 Comments
  • Amazon
    bluecoin

    Go to company page Amazon

    bluecoin
    You have to resign yourself to the fact that coding interviews are a separate game. The name of the game is pressure and time. It has very little to do with being a good SWE, which is more about depth and robustness.

    It's honestly so retarded. Having the stroke of luck of having seen a question before gives you the speed edge and can literally mean tens of thousands of $ salary wise.
    Mar 5, 2018 2
  • New
    Beebeegunn

    New

    Beebeegunn
    Sadly It is how interview works these days in America. You can get pass only if you leetcode and had good memory. It sucks
    Mar 5, 2018 0
  • I understand your frustration. But if the interviewer took the code you checked in at Github into consideration, would that be fair? What about other candidates that weren't told that was an option? To remain fair, all candidates must be interviewed and evaluated with the same constraints. Do you agree? If not, where do you draw the line? Solutions turned in within a day? A week? A year? What makes either of these options fairer than the others?

    There are other rounds of the interview process that measure the arguably more important things such as experience (through design), passion (through the behavioral interview round), etc.

    It's not a perfect process but it's fairer than the alternative you're proposing, IMO.
    Mar 5, 2018 0
  • Visa / Eng
    Coultd

    Go to company page Visa Eng

    Coultd
    Why are we living in a world like this? If there really is a ‘talent shortage’ or this kind of BS shouldn’t be happening? Sometimes I wonder if ‘tech’ is way overrated in terms of the number and quality of opportunity claimed. Something just doesn’t feel right.
    Mar 5, 2018 6
  • Of course interviews are subjective. You aren't competiting against an arbitrary bar you are competiting with other people. Don't let it get to you. Could have been anything and maybe the other guy has 15 years experience. Just keep trying and the right one will click
    Mar 5, 2018 0