Hey guys, Tl;dr: always wondered about if companies should be moving more towards projects and/or some assignment format that tests ones skills for a position. When I say coding assessments I mean the no directional coding questions vs more free form coding with a real world assignment. (Everything below is just examples and banter) Let me explain further, Iām currently a Senior in college and Iāve been fortunate to have about 4 internships in the span of a little over 3 years. These internships were mainly with small businesses, then one being a big company, and another being a startup. Neither of those jobs I got through doing coding assessments. Iāve never actually had to grind out and leetcode, Iāve just done personal projects and done research at my University as my skill development. Any coding assessments I have done I have failed of course cause I didnāt study, but Iād still do them just to see how Iād end up doing. Hereās the interview processes Iāve done: The first internship was completely out of scope (Cyber Security) but they saw I could learn fast and in my interview they gave me a live assignment where I made a bootable flash drive and then a take home assignment to research on P2P connections. Second one, was a actual mini project and itās was for a ML heavy position so I guess this made sense to do. I had to make a program that utilized Name Entity Recognition and give documentation and references. I think this was the most exciting interview task Iāve done. With the third internship it was only for the summer (Accenture Federal Services) and since theyāre so open-ended on where you can go they just tested my ability to think technically and I had to do a presentation on a known government issue and my idea to resolve it with technology. Where Iām currently at (Start up), I actually didnāt get any technical assessment, theyāre currently in the seed funding stage so they are very early on. We just talked about my work experiences. That actually worried me for a second , but Iāve gotten a chance to talk to some of their devs and see their codebase and they are very competent, care about scaling, and code is very easy to follow. I had one other startup I applied to in blockchain but theyāve taken so long to start onboarding, so I had to assume theyāve ghosted and I had to move on. That interview I talked to one of their devs and they talked with me about scenarios on the blockchain and how Iād resolve certain issues using one of my projects as the main focus. He also asked me if I could explain how āwrapping tokensā work and I did. So with all those examples, Iām thinking more companies should do this approach. If anything theyāve made me feel more confident in my skills because they assigned or talked with me about things Iād actually face. After my second internship any trace of imposter syndrome I had was gone. What are your thoughts on coding assessments and do you agree with me? TC : 52K Future TC: 97K #tech #interviews
The first few sentences gave the overview the rest were just examples lol
tldr? whatās the alternative? and why is it better? donāt say take-home projects, cuz Im sure any sane person would rather do 40 OAs than 40 take-home assignments.
TLDR; a quick project live or take home with 1:1 assessment of what the position actually will entail is a far better test of skill. They already do live coding now, why not make it a coding challenge related to the line of work and not a coding problem. Also no +6 month of leetcode grinding, you come as you are.
People also complain about take home assignments so pick your poison š¤·āāļø
Itās too easy for companies to send out OAs and trim down the field of applicants why would they change?
Someone post the "I ain't reading all that" meme
I have a friend who also works at accenture. He had the same interview experience. Guess what, they don't care about your skills there, they will sell you to their clients as an "expert" in whatever they see fit and charge the client 10x more than your š„ TC. They bill by the hour so they don't want you to be good or efficient.
Thatās besides my point, others can say that for many other companies. The focus is the coding assessments in interview processes lol
It's not besides the point. Your interview experience reflects that your company is trying to filter less than FAANG companies do. They just make sure you have the bare minimum requirements and then throw you at their client, because contrary to the deliverable, YOU are the product. Other companies might want to have efficient engineers who can solve complex programming problems quickly and under stress.
Like most people say, take-home assignments are shit. They expect you to build a 100% bug free, working, fancy looking, production quality feature in 4 hours. And then nit pick on == vs ===.
Nothing comes without its drawdowns , I know the idea isnāt perfect, I just believe itās better.
A lot of companies already do that. Itās very annoying.
What donāt you like about it? Curious about your experience.
Yeah I see what youāre saying, thatās why I was thinking just something overall more free-form and set for the position. We know it can be hit or miss studying leetcode, so Iām thinking whatās the harm in having something leetcode style but focused on what the person would be doing. Like ML positions getting a ML directed problem. This was very insightful, thank you.
Is this why you're still at Accenture? Less coding, more documentation?
Actually Iām at a startup now working ML and some api stuff š though I am planning to go to Accenture after I graduate. Donāt be so quick to bark though, youāre loud and wrong š¤. I work hard to continue to develop myself, just in different ways.
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