
Interview Zen, tool for asynchronous coding interviews - espinchi
http://www.interviewzen.com/
======
steve8918
Oh boy.

So now, we are supposed to be evaluated on our "thought process"? Based on
what we type in the middle of programming? Talk about a completely ridiculous
notion.

First off, what is the point? What matters is the finished product. When I
code, I try a bunch of different ideas, get to a working prototype to make
sure that the idea can actually work, and then I start to whittle down to what
I believe is the best solution.

What does it matter what intermediate steps I come up with? All that matters
is the code that I present for code review to my co-workers, and the code that
I ultimately check-in. Trying to divine someone's "thought process" (which
other people are completely unqualified to do, just based on what you see them
type on the screen) is more stupid hoops to jump through in what is already
becoming an increasing ridiculous hiring process for programmers.

~~~
typicalrunt
Showing the mistakes I made while coding was actually something I liked about
it. I would hope that after I write the code, I can justify some of the
backspaces I used. Even when writing the fizzbuzz implementation in Ruby I
found that I used the wrong conditional logic at first (puts "fizz" if i % 3
== 0) and then decided to change it to a more traditional if-else block
format. Sure, that meant I took 2m10s to finish the test, but now I have proof
why it took the extra 30 seconds. That's something I have no problem showing
to a potential employer, because I can show how I'm constantly trying to
improve my code even as I write it.

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jcs
Hey, founder here. Pablo, thanks for the submission, much appreciated. I'm
glad you find it useful.

I built Interview Zen to scratch an itch I had hiring developers, namely how
do I quickly find out how well they can code? I tried a few different options,
but the one that really stuck out was to follow along with the candidate as
they arrived at the solution. The extra context gained through seeing the
solution develop made it much easier to make the decision on whether or not to
bring the candidate it for the next round.

I agree with some of the other comments here, it's not finished yet (next up
are some creature comforts to help developers feel more at home). If you want
to get in touch, I'd love to talk. I reply to all emails -
james@interviewzen.com

Thanks again,

James

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monatron
I've used this in an interview and was very frustrated.

Perhaps it was the fault of the interviewer and the way he framed his
questions (they were slightly involved questions -- "write a command line
utility that converts an image file, include unit tests, etc.)? I would often
have to write my code in the online editor... (so the interviewer could
observe my "style") and then bounce out of the browser, throw it into iPython
or sublimetext, run the code, debug in my editor... go back to the browser...
write my updated code out... rinse repeat.

Code interviews are a bit nerve racking to begin with -- and interrupting my
workflow so jarringly doesn't really help. I prefer when hiring managers have
me branch a git repo on git hub, encourage me to commit my changes to a
project frequently and discuss my thought process on the commits. I think that
process works better for both sides.

~~~
prawks
I think the problem lies in the interviewer in this case. This tool seems to
be a substitute for being in an interview room and having a whiteboard to
write code on in front of the interviewer, rather than an IDE with a "record-
mode". As such, I think the interview question should be posed as if that were
the case.

In regards to its effectiveness, I think if you take the above into
consideration, this tool works very well as advertised. If I were being
interviewed with it I suppose I'd just be thankful it has syntax highlighting.

Questions for this should be to discover a person's thinking and problem-
solving style, not the correctness of syntax/libraries/etc. Things like
writing idiomatic code, etc. are much more appropriate to test for.

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jarito
Okay. Tried it out. This has some promise, but I think there might be some
issues in actual use. One of the major bonuses of this for me as an
interviewer is to see how the candidate solves the problem over time (as
opposed to just seeing the finished product).

However, as a candidate, the coding process is pretty painful. I tried it out
for C# and there is no intellisense, no compilation, no type checking, etc.
This means that I'm more likely to just write it in VS, then cut and paste the
solution into the webform, which reduces the value for me as an interviewer
because I can't see the process. Even for languages like Python and Ruby, I
would see most devs using the editor they are used to and cut and pasting
since it would be faster / easier. This makes it hard for me as an interviewer
to distinguish between someone that's just good and someone that cut and
pasted a solution off the web.

Not sure the best way to fix it. A plugin to popular IDEs for the languages
that use them. Improved coding experience on the webpage itself. Some plugins
for something like vim, emacs, textmate, sublime or something that can be used
for most languages. All those options are tough. Good luck :)

Also a small note. I would decrease the default tab size. When coding in the
web window, it is quite large by default.

Another small note. I would remove the dead space from the video. You could
note you are doing it, but if someone is thinking / using another editor,
you're just going to have a 1/2 hour of nothing, then one block of text.

~~~
espinchi
It's definitely far from comfortable if you compare to your favorite
editor/IDE. In my case, I'm fine with it because I just want to assess the
overall coding and design skills of the candidate.

For instance, I'm well aware that when you take Eclipse/IntelliJ away from a
Java developer, we feel hopelessly lost, so I wouldn't be picky when seeing
the candidate answers.

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chrismorgan
Looks like a good tool. You don't show all the functionality from the
homepage; would I be correct in imagining that you'll have a way of exporting
results for execution, or executing them, so that the correctness of a
solution can be verified?

The only problem that I have with things like this is the way they throw me
off by whatever rules they have for indentation - the auto-indentation rules
may well not match those that I'm used to, and it increases the cognitive
burden. And not having access to the full power of Vim! How can you analyse an
applicant's capabilities if you tear him away from Vim? ;-)

That issue is one that I guess you can't really get around.

Oh yes - one other gripe. The hunt-and-peck style is apparent in your leading
demo submission. _Shudder._ If you hit ones like that, 5x just doesn't seem
fast enough.

Good job.

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andrewljohnson
I've been hiring programmers recently, mostly contract, then on to full-time
for the best fits. One thing I've never asked is to see them code, and I'm not
sure I'd want to. I might skip a candidate who fumbled around, who was
actually really good.

This isn't appropriate for every company, but we simply give programmers we
are trying out a project, something we expect can be done in less than a day.
We pay for the project, and we're always asking them to build things we
actually put into production.

If you make it to a phone screen with me, 80-90% of the time, I'm going to be
willing to pay you 200-1000 to show me what you can do. I have to let go most
of the candidates after this trial, but it's cheap, and the people we keep are
all really outstanding.

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columbo
It is a good idea but I'll stick with using join.me (or skype, vnc, or
teamviewer) so the candidate can have their own development environment.

Writing code in this doesn't really give you anything beyond watching how long
it takes them to type something, which isn't a good indicator of anything
(perhaps they have the phone up to their ear instead of a headset and it is
hard to type). Also, since there is no way to test your code you may as well
do the same thing in a skype chat window.

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shanelja
It's certainly not perfect, but I came up with it under pressure in less than
90 seconds without checking online for the modulo return values, so I'm rather
proud of it.

<?php

$x = 1;

while($x <= 100) {

if((($x % 5) == 0) && (($x % 3) != 0)){ print("Buzz"); }else{ if(($x % 3) ==
0){ if(($x % 5) == 0) { print("FizzBuzz"); } else { print("Fizz"); } }else{
print($x); }} ++$x; }

?>

~~~
lifeisstillgood
I am a bit lost on the syntax, but its always good to check for division by 15
_first_. You have sort of caught that I think in 5 and not 3, but that just
seems an odd idiom.

The homepage shows a simple example in C.

Oh, I used to use this on coding tests, the first guy who asked can I do it
recursively in Scheme - I could have kissed him !

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akshayagarwal
Doesnt etherpad have a similar functionality to record and replay entered
text? In fact it allows for unlimited editors and far more customisable. Best
of all, its free!

Dont believe me?

Checkout <https://etherpad.mozilla.org/ep/pad/view/wvxaz6MPyt/latest>

~~~
apoorvsaxena
yeah.. that's true. I have been using etherpad in interviews and it has worked
out quite well.

Please give me a reason to not choose an open source solution and instead go
with your proprietary solution. I would be glad to be your customer if you
come up with a good one.

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pukkaone
In Internet Explorer 9, the code editor is unusable because you can't change
previously entered lines. When you try to move the cursor by up arrow key or
mouse click, the cursor jumps back to the last line. Maybe it's a feature to
exclude candidates who don't run a modern browser. :-)

~~~
jcs
Passive aggressive browser bugs aside, thanks for the feedback. I'm switching
the editor out for Ace (<http://ace.ajax.org/>) soon, hopefully things should
improve.

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espinchi
Just to be clear: I'm not the founder, neither am I affiliated with this
platform in any way.

After researching other coding interview tools, I stumbled upon this one (that
I'll probably use next week), and wanted to share it with HN.

If the discussion here is interesting (as usually), I'll send the link to the
author.

------
aymeric
Very interesting to see myself code: see the frequency of typos, see the order
I write things, etc...

~~~
colinshark
But do these things even matter? We design and build complex systems. The
actual typing part is insignificant.

~~~
espinchi
In the end, they don't matter.

But, as a candidate, once you try it once, and see what the interviewer will
see, you become very self-aware of those minor details. It perhaps adds a bit
of unnecessary pressure for some.

------
bagosm
This is cool, but I am more interested in the javascript component that does
the playback. Is there anything similar open source? Having actually seen the
implementation that downloads a set of linear commands in JSON it doesnt seem
too hard to implement though.

~~~
akshayagarwal
You definitely want to checkout Etherpad.

------
jotux
While pretty, I think tools like see[mike]code are a little more practical:
<http://i.seemikecode.com/>

I think a conversation with someone as they code, rather than a reply of what
they did, is an easier way to evaluate skill.

~~~
espinchi
However, you can't do asynchronous interviews to a bunch of candidates with
seemikecode. (A different business is whether that is a good practice or not.)

------
rabidsnail
What's with this trend of people randomly inserting the word Zen into things?

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tluyben2
When I clicked on the play button on the homepage under Chrome (latest) on
Macbook i7/8gb, my fans popped on and I thought I was going into outer space.
Is that just me?

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macavity23
Looks nice. We'll probably use this.

What's your revenue model?

~~~
bigfishl
I would recommend you to check Interviewstreet.com too. They are much more
established.Companies like Facebook, Amazon are using them

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jarito
The 'Try a Demo' question link doesn't seem to do anything on latest Chrome on
OSX.

~~~
jcs
Latest being Canary?

I'm having trouble reproducing on OS X + 21.0.1180.89.

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nileshbhojani
This looks more like an early version of interviewstreet.com.

