Notes

Regarding the skills test aspect - some things to note -

1. Specifically pertaining to Computer Science, IF there are multiple choice questions, we must avoid questions involving syntax like “which of these are valid c++?” and then five snippets of code. In real life, software engineers have IDEs and tools to help them figure out when something is spelled or written incorrectly. TLDR: NO spell-checker type questions



2. We must incorporate the ability for it to be impossible for a user to copy and paste the questions - HackerRank doesn't let you copy text from the page. This is a good functionality, as it will make it harder for users to cheat.



3. For each coding challenge, include the functionality for the user to explain their code through video. The reason for this is - in a typical on-site interview, you are sitting in a room with a whiteboard and your technical interviewer (usually a software engineer at the company) - you explain your code to them as you write it. As it is not possible in this instance to do that, instead the video explanation by the user will show employers whether or not the candidate can explain and communicate their insights properly - an important necessity in any team environment.

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4. 'Are they creative? Do they write good, clean, SOLID code? Do they understand patterns? Can they work with other team members? Do they add to the team? Do they understand the trade-off between speed and maintainability? etc. none of this can be found out from HackerRank.' - from an article about someone's complaints about HackerRank - our skills tests should reflect this and fix these issues.



5. Integrate IDE functionality into JobChat's coding challenges - absolutely brilliant element to have.



6. @daveh take a look at this article - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8974477 Look at what various people are saying positively and negatively about HackerRank - take a look at this excerpt from one of the comments -



'We use Python/Django on our backend and we found the tests are reasonable to complete in Python. For iOS developers the C-type challenges seem an order of magnitude harder. So language experience and the technical limits of hackerrank do make this process have blind spots and we know we are going to miss out on some good candidates. I still think hackerrank is the best solution I've seen so far to objectively judge technical talent and works better than phone screens and resume reviews (which are horrible and I personally hate).



We've used hackerrank (formerly interviewstreet) almost since we started hiring software engineers, so every engineer we currently have working at drchrono passed through the hackerrank challenge as the first line interview. One other benefit is that if someone gets a good score on the test we feel 90% sure that the person is technically strong enough to be able to do their job and we focus the rest of our interactions with the candidate on other variables.' - from the link above



7. Include live programming functionality so employers can watch, chat with, and talk with their candidates code and explain their code (IF they want to interview candidates thru JobChat) - like CodePair in HackerRank

--- Also potentially consider creating library of behavioral questions with video answering functionality like HireVue so behavioral interviews are easier too like @daveh said



8. Give the recruiters/employers functionality to pick and choose from a library of coding challenges for them to give their candidate - such as Front End challenge, senior software developer challenge, etc. (AND make sure to develop algorithm so different candidates who are applying for same position have a low probability of getting same questions - to prevent cheating)



9. - WITHIN THE SKILL TEST - Give a SmartScore after the candidate finishes the test, out of 100, that gives the recruiters a good sense of the candidate's ability. Let recruiters filter by score.



10. Add support for a couple languages at first, then expand to many frameworks and other concepts in future.



11. In future - expand to competitive programming for people just interested in seeing how good they are in coding compared to others.



12. Include sample question in skills test before test begins.



13. For non-CS people, tailor challenge according to their skills. For CS people, tailor challenge according to their skills when they sign up (when they sign up, they indicate their strengths)