
“Show us a code sample” - max_effort
I see this when applying to many jobs and freelancer sites (most recently Gun.io). They always want a sample of your &quot;best code&quot;, but they never explain what criteria they use to measure &quot;best&quot;.<p>Are they looking for incredibly tight code (i.e. Code Golf)? Or something clean and readable that solves a common CS question? What if my &quot;best&quot; code is something that doesn&#x27;t make much sense outside the context of the project, or if it&#x27;s proprietary work that I did for hire?<p>This question just seems like an arbitrary way to get rejected, so how do you respond to it?
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HelloNurse
It's a test that you are an actual programmer, a way to probe your tastes and
maturity, a measure of your skill (if the code sample is bad) and a starting
point for an interview.

For example, I wouldn't hire someone who sends me proprietary code from their
previous job, and someone who "solves a common CS question" instead of
submitting something advanced and/or useful shows that they are very junior
(which is not the same as being careless and incompetent).

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max_effort
Fair point. I have quite a few code samples from libraries I've developed
which I can provide. I just wanted to get some insight into the ambiguous
criteria for "best".

