We know all about Leetcode and Codewars and how these tend to train developers in abstract problem solving, but I haven't met a website that presents you with a production bug for you to solve. I find that this would be a lot more beneficial to learn how to identify and solve problems. Personally, I think it would be even better to use them in interviews. What do you think? And is there already a project like this? Share with the class.
An example would be you're given a rails application that takes 2s to load up a page and you're asked to speed it up.
Or an node application where an API endpoint is returning undefined and you're required to figure out why.
I think this way you can see different solutions to your problem, if it's an optimization one, and you can even reference the problem when someone can't duplicate it locally.
Top comments (11)
What if we had this, but we even get paid for solving the issues?
We could call that "paid work".
Seriously that's a good idea though.
Much better to identify candidates than websites like leetcode who are completely useless(*).
Just propose them to do a couple of days of consulting with you. Paid of course because unpaid work is always immoral.
(*) Go to therapy here leetcodetherapy.com/
Yea, this one made me laugh a bit.
There is probably a lot I am missing with regards to implementation, but I think it would be a step in the right direction with regards to improving interviews.
A step forward but that doesn't address the main issue
For a candidate to get the job, they need to give some proof that they will be able to learn to do the job. Obviously. But candidates overfocus on this part. Lots of people stress out even if they are good enough. In fact they don't have to know it all, they will have plenty of opportunities to learn on the job
On the other hand most candidates under invest in their "getting a job" skills. they are terrible at that because you don't learn that at school and you don't change jobs every year.
Nothing "slightly better than leetcode" will fix the second problem which is more important.
Great idea, but it goes further than that (and not sure how you would test for this...) I had a potential customer who has been on at her vendor for getting on two years to explain/fix why the payroll summary report didn't match the bank payroll payment. I got he problem resolved in under half an hour on the phone to support desk just using the correct technical terminology rather than the business terminology which support desk didn't really understand. No coding no answers, just asking the right questions
It would be interesting to see a website like this. Sometimes I go on StackOverflow just to try to solve random problems. The problems with bounties are usually pretty difficult to answer.
It's not a bad idea, so long as your working with resources and applications which you can easily configure the state. Whether that's bad data in a database or a misconfigured resource in the infrastructure, spinning up a triage situation would enable support roles to better train junior team members.
A big thing to consider with this, except the ones already mentioned with not getting paid is that I don't think many companies would be willing to just hand out their source code...
Great Idea!
There are websites/apps that offer environments that allow you to do bug fixes add features. I don't have any off the top of my head but comment if you or anyone else wants the links.
I'd like to see some
Isn't this just stack overflow?