DEV Community

John Best
John Best

Posted on

3

On coding challenges.

As a dev candidate who's been unemployed for a while now, I see a lot of companies wanting you to take these timed tests to implement some challenge or algorithm. These have been criticized for not meaning much.
And I myself am not sure if I want to feed into a culture that perpetuates this kind of meaninglessness, however, should I bite the bullet for the sake of a job or hold out on principal?

Top comments (1)

Collapse
 
djtai profile image
David Taitingfong β€’

The first question you should answer is...what are your goals?

I agree with you in the sense that they might not mean much, i.e., you might not even utilize those skills at your job. But I also believe that knowing how to solve those challenges helps display a particular way of thinking and problem solving.

If the key to getting the jobs you want entail knowing how to solve those problems, then I say bite the bullet. In that sense I don't think it's meaningless.

Who knows though - you might be able to find a job where you won't need to prove that knowledge. But it's as they say, better safe than sorry.

In any case, best of luck on your journey!

Sentry image

See why 4M developers consider Sentry, β€œnot bad.”

Fixing code doesn’t have to be the worst part of your day. Learn how Sentry can help.

Learn more

πŸ‘‹ Kindness is contagious

Please leave a ❀️ or a friendly comment on this post if you found it helpful!

Okay