Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode

• GildedRose-Refactoring-Kata

  27 3,492 8.7 C++

  Starting code for the GildedRose Refactoring Kata in many programming languages.

The problem is though how do you evaluate for real work without a portfolio of experience? Real work projects take weeks - perhaps months - to design, build, review and release. How do you test for that, really?

I agree leetcode style interviews are artificial, but I think they persist because few people have identified and popularised effective alternatives. At least with leetcode you've shown people in front of you have been prepared to go learn arcane stuff and apply it. It's not good, but it's better than nothing.

I was once asked to do the Gilded Rose kata[1] for one ~200 headcount Series D "startup", and it not only resembled real work - it's a refactoring problem - but it also showed their engineering culture. When I joined, I found smart people who weren't leetcode robots, but thoughtful engineers trying to solve tricky engineering problems. I "stole" Gilded Rose to use in other companies when interviewing until I joined my current employer (a FAANG, heavily prescribed process), with great success. I would like to see more katas that are as good at testing real world skills.

Also, something I've only ever been interviewed for twice in 25+ years, which I think is underplayed: pair programming and handling code review feedback. Do this more, please. If you hire people not knowing how they're going to respond to a principal engineer telling them "we need you to think about 4 other things that weren't in the original scope given to you by the PM, can you please go deal with them", why are you surprised when toys are subsequently thrown out of metaphorical prams?

[1] https://github.com/emilybache/GildedRose-Refactoring-Kata

• hiring-without-whiteboards

  303 41,440 8.5 JavaScript

  ⭐️ Companies that don't have a broken hiring process

You might find this helpful

https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards

• SurveyJS

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