Published on: 29 May 03:51

It would appear that if certain web-dev companies wish to test job applicants' technical savvy, they just google "web dev technical testing" or something, yoink the first vaguely-interesting-looking result, and say "build this".

Six months ago, I was interviewing with, let's say, "Company A". and I wrote https://github.com/tyrant/toy-robot, a toy robot designed to navigate across a 5x5 grid. So far so good. A few days ago I began interviewing with Company B ... who asked me to build a "truck simulator". I skimmed the test's exact instructions. The only major difference seems to be that its grid is 7x7.

For a few seconds I contemplated just simply sprucing-up my toy-robot program and presenting that instead. But nah, I decided, bad idea. For one thing, not only is https://github.com/tyrant/toy-robot publicly accessible, but I make quite a lot of noise about https://github.com/tyrant on my CV. It's totally possible Company B is sending me this almost-identical test to see how I respond.

Secondly, I don't actually mind banging out programming test code. It's fun! So I emailed them about the clash, though tried to avoid implying that they crave the copypasta-ing of technical tests. Still waiting on a reply.

Though ... as I type this, I'm finding myself mentally jumping deeper into how one would throw together a technical puzzle that would challenge intermediate-senior developers like me, but not challenge them too much. Bit of a tightrope! Tougher than it looks. Out of curiosity, I googled "web developer technical test toy robot" just to see what might emerge from the Internet's briny deeps ... and yup, this is a really common challenge, it's all over the place. https://codereview.stackexchange.com/.../toy-robot-simulator is just one tip of a particularly crotchety digital iceberg.

Banging out any kind of programming technical test can genuinely be fraught with hilarious and lethal side effects. Ever heard of the "FizzBuzz" test?

"Iterate over the numbers 1 to 100. For each multiple of 3, output 'fizz', for each multiple of 5, output 'buzz', and for each multiple of 3 and 5, output 'fizzbuzz'."

https://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/ claims that 99% of applicants to "senior" programming jobs can't complete this. Aah. I absolutely get that programming isn't for everyone, and don't wish to knock those who find that it just doesn't flow for them no matter how hard they try, totally fair enough, it takes all sorts to make a world, right? Back when we were uni students, a ubiquitous party convo topic would be "we're all broke undergrads lol". I'd often chip in with "hey why not try this web-dev lark? I'd just kicked off with these part-time Student Job Search jobs, they're a gold mine, they're a ton of fun, come and join me!" Perhaps 75% of the responses were "... Ohhh, I couldn't! I don't think I have the right programming mind!" This isn't me putting words in anyones' mouths: they'd tell me this. And fair enough, right? It really does take all sorts to make a world. Works both ways. There are loads of things I've attempted and failed at hilariously.

But there's quite a difference between "turns out programming just ain't for me" and "I have already applied for this *senior*-developer job." I'd scratched my head about blind CV-spamming etc., and don't doubt there's tons of that ... though the post's author also personally interviewed people with Masters and even Ph.Ds in computer science, and they couldn't do this either.

That can't be right, can it? Like, sure, we all inhabit our little social bubbles, don't we? The world is a colossal splodgey galaxy of social spaghetti. We can't ever learn more than a teensy-weensy nano-sliver of the whole thing even when on LEARN LEARN LEARN mode 24/7, it's just too vast. But is there really this vast splodgey armada of people who think they can code expertly but can't? Anyone ever met any? I don't think I had, or at least they'd not made themselves known to me. Maybe I repel them.