Approach wise - it's really hard. In part because every company and technical assessment is looking for something different. Some companies look for candidates who go above and beyond, others look for succinct solutions that solve a given problem as neatly and consicely as possible.
We definitely review assignments looking for the latter.
For me, the key thing has always just been to have a go, and see what they think. If they don't like it, you can always ask for explicit reasons why and use it as a learning opportunity for next time. I recently had a friend who did exactly this, they told him he hadn't gone above and beyond enough, so he went back expanding his solution and got the job.
Nerves wise - the worst that can happen is you get a free code review. I know it's hard, the first time I had to do one was terrifying, but sitting the other side of the fence there really isn't anything to be nervous of.
If youd find it helpful, I could send you our assignment? You can ask questions, and I could give feedback on what you manage to do with it.
Hi Douglas,
Thanks for taking the time to send such a detailed response i'll certainly take that all on board for the future.
Is your assignment for a web developer or a software engineer? I recently had a test for a software engineer (they definitely seem to be overlapping these days) and being self-taught web developer I barely had any clue where to start which was demoralising as I've been spending a lot of time recently trying to get better at algorithms. Despite my efforts I'm still finding things that completely baffle me.
That said I'm willing to take a look if that's ok, I'm stubborn enough not to back away from a challenge no matter how many time I get knocked down lol
Hey, Sorry for being slow to get back to you. Been a busy few days.
How are you defining the two? In my mind, a web developer is just a more nuanced type of Software Engineer, focussing on UI/UX and backends. There's certainly a big crossover though.
Algorithms are a funny one - 99% of the time you don't need them, yet people insist on assessing with them.
Hi,
No problem at all, completely understand with the run up to Christmas etc.
I'm at the interviewing stage with companies and my experience so far is that, when going for a web developer role you get some kind of assignment where you are asked to build a basic front-end or add some functionality to an existing front-end. When going for a software engineering role you get asked design patterns, more complicated algorithms and O notation etc (I had a couple leaning towards software engineering recently and I was thinking, what the heck, I haven't covered that yet do I need to??) so it can get a little confusing and demoralising looking at the mountain of things I don't know.
I would like to take a look at your assignment if that's ok, it's all practice and helps me to understand where my gaps are so I can be better prepared next time?
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Hey, thanks for asking. Are there any particular problems you're having, or is it more about the approach?
The approach is certainly a big part of it, after nerves of course :-/
I totally understand that.
Approach wise - it's really hard. In part because every company and technical assessment is looking for something different. Some companies look for candidates who go above and beyond, others look for succinct solutions that solve a given problem as neatly and consicely as possible.
We definitely review assignments looking for the latter.
For me, the key thing has always just been to have a go, and see what they think. If they don't like it, you can always ask for explicit reasons why and use it as a learning opportunity for next time. I recently had a friend who did exactly this, they told him he hadn't gone above and beyond enough, so he went back expanding his solution and got the job.
Nerves wise - the worst that can happen is you get a free code review. I know it's hard, the first time I had to do one was terrifying, but sitting the other side of the fence there really isn't anything to be nervous of.
If youd find it helpful, I could send you our assignment? You can ask questions, and I could give feedback on what you manage to do with it.
Hi Douglas,
Thanks for taking the time to send such a detailed response i'll certainly take that all on board for the future.
Is your assignment for a web developer or a software engineer? I recently had a test for a software engineer (they definitely seem to be overlapping these days) and being self-taught web developer I barely had any clue where to start which was demoralising as I've been spending a lot of time recently trying to get better at algorithms. Despite my efforts I'm still finding things that completely baffle me.
That said I'm willing to take a look if that's ok, I'm stubborn enough not to back away from a challenge no matter how many time I get knocked down lol
Hey, Sorry for being slow to get back to you. Been a busy few days.
How are you defining the two? In my mind, a web developer is just a more nuanced type of Software Engineer, focussing on UI/UX and backends. There's certainly a big crossover though.
Algorithms are a funny one - 99% of the time you don't need them, yet people insist on assessing with them.
Hi,
No problem at all, completely understand with the run up to Christmas etc.
I'm at the interviewing stage with companies and my experience so far is that, when going for a web developer role you get some kind of assignment where you are asked to build a basic front-end or add some functionality to an existing front-end. When going for a software engineering role you get asked design patterns, more complicated algorithms and O notation etc (I had a couple leaning towards software engineering recently and I was thinking, what the heck, I haven't covered that yet do I need to??) so it can get a little confusing and demoralising looking at the mountain of things I don't know.
I would like to take a look at your assignment if that's ok, it's all practice and helps me to understand where my gaps are so I can be better prepared next time?