
Ask HN: Is it normal to have to build an app for the interviewing process? - ssono
I recently applied to a startup for an internship, and they responded by asking for a &quot;work sample&quot; For this work sample, the company has provided specifications as well as required technologies for a web app I am supposed to build.<p>I have never done an internship before so I don&#x27;t know if this is unusual, but it feels like a bit of a red flag...
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burlesona
It depends on the job and mostly on your level of experience relative to their
requirements. When I was very first entering software engineering, self
taught, most of my interviews went like you’re describing. I had built a few
apps which I was proud to demo, and usually they’d ask me to build something
in 8-12 hours according to their spec.

I wouldn’t do it NOW, but just starting out it was actually a lot of fun and I
learned some neat tricks along the way. That kind of interview landed me a
great first job and launched my career.

So I wouldn’t consider that a red flag all by itself.

However I would push back if the scope they ask for is unreasonable, ie if it
would take more than a Saturday or so.

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shoo
There's a few perspectives here, not specifically for internships:

[http://www.gayle.com/blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-
cand...](http://www.gayle.com/blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-candidates-
homework-assignments-knock-it-off)

I think the company should be very clear about the maximum amount of time you
are expected to spend on tasks as part of the application process. There are
some cases where companies do this kind of thing to get candidates to do
unpaid work.

From your perspective, perhaps the most useful and actionable thing you can do
might be to get more offers for internships / work from a range of other
companies (easier said than done, of course). Ideally offers not just from
startups -- larger orgs, despite their other faults, can have a more
professional approach to hiring people.

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cimmanom
Yes, it’s common. But it should be something simple - a toy app that you could
build in an afternoon and that isn’t useful to the company.

If it looks like something they’ll actually use in production or if it would
take more than a day to complete, those are big red flags (trying to get free
work or just not respectful of your time and work-life balance).

The idea is to demonstrate that you’re able to do the type of work the company
will want you to do using the technologies you’d be using on the job. It
provides a sample of code to discuss in technical interviews to get a sense of
our ability to communicate about technical topics. And because everyone gets
the same coding project, it allows the hiring team to compare candidates’
skills in an apples to apples manner.

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sloaken
I actually like the idea. It provides a lot of opportunity to excel. Let us
assume the project is to write a 'Hello world' application. You have 3 choices
1) ignore the assignment, 2) do a simple application 3) go overboard - create
a requirements document, design document, project plan, code, test plan,....

If you do option 3 there will be one of 2 reactions - they decide you are
overboard and do not want you, and really if they cannot appreciate the hard
work, they are not worth getting wrapped up in, or they will go ga ga over you
and want you immediately.

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Ws32ok
Let’s face it, if you can’t make a pong app for your platform in a few hours
then you’re probably not an app developer. If you can’t point at a portfolio
of work and/or customers then building a work sample isn’t unheard of.

That said, you will own the finished product (right?!) so add it to your
portfolio when finished, eg post screenshots etc on your website.

Be cool about it though, make sure you’re enthusiastic and mention you will be
posting the project on github or whatever (if that’s what you do). If they
demand they own it then that’s a red flag.

Remember you are also hiring THEM as much as they are hiring you.

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rajacombinator
Really depends how complicated the app is and how close it is to their actual
business. There are some startups out there that see this as a “hack” to get
their mvp built. If it’s just a toy app that’s ok although it sounds excessive
for an intern.

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askafriend
It's not uncommon, especially if you're working with mobile technologies.

