Thoughts on HackerRank riddles being used for a tech screen.

Uber
bhjfrubvv

Go to company page Uber

bhjfrubvv
Jan 18, 2017 9 Comments

So I recently had a tech screen from a well established company, not a tech giant. The position was more about a DevOps engineer, focusing on continues integration, automation, immutable infrastructure, cloud etc.
For tech screen they gave me a HackerRank quiz which had 6 pretty tough programming questions (riddles as I must say) which was required to be solved in 1.5 hours.
I think the question in no way tested me for any of the mentioned job responsibilities. Not even coding, datastructure, Linux internals or any well know algorithms. It was if you know answer to riddle you can code the solution.

What are your thoughts on such a tech screen .
I was able to solve 2/6 questions, with time running out when I was fixing edge cases for third one.

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TOP 9 Comments
  • Yahoo
    Grokit

    Go to company page Yahoo

    Grokit
    And how do you think will our thoughts help? This kind of interviewing is ridiculous for the kind of role you applied for. But then our opinion just doesn't matter. You've only 2 options. Either suck it up or just don't join this company.
    Jan 18, 2017 1
  • Amazon
    CA7W5B

    Go to company page Amazon

    CA7W5B
    may be they were testing if you are able to google up solutions for problems you don't know how to solve. There is no other reason to have such an interview.
    Jan 18, 2017 2
  • Uber
    uberuberu

    Go to company page Uber

    uberuberu
    Don't do it. Or do it with your own twist. If the candidate prep'ed for the question you ask, you get zero signal. Keep in mind this will be your potential team member (whether the candidate is interviewing for your team or not), you want clear signals on yes or no
    Jan 18, 2017 1
  • Microsoft used to ask riddles, more than coding questions, that was the time in 90s it defeated all its competition. Then it softened up, banned riddles and started failing. I heard google also banned them these days. I found ppl who succeed on unseen riddles are good with ambiguity and they find way in real life problems when no known example exist.
    Jan 18, 2017 1
    • Uber
      bhjfrubvv

      Go to company page Uber

      bhjfrubvv
      OP
      I don't agree. The success of an organization like Microsoft depends on its CEO and upper management. engineers are hired or fired based on what upper management thinks is suitable project or area to work on from which company can generate enough revenue. Not a person who is hired based on how fast he can solve Sudoku
      Jan 18, 2017