
Show HN: Quiz that estimates your engineer level - jonathankau
http://www.engquiz.me/
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etc_host

      Question 2 of 20
    
      Which of the following is a valid reason for why idempotence is useful in API design?
    
      A. Due to the rise of distributed systems, idempotence has become necessary in order to scale any large-scale application.
      B. Given the unreliability of networks, idempotence allows developers to build robust API’s that allow for retry attempts.
      C. Idempotence is actually not as useful in API design and is instead more useful when designing database schemas.
      D. Idempotence is important to prevent clients from sending multiple duplicate API requests.
      E. I don't know
    

Wow, you're really going to try and estimate my level, based on opinions? No
thanks. Not without a write-in option.

P.S. My opinion is that, idempotence only useful, if you draw the conclusion
that ceding control of your systems to external entities is useful. At which
point you compromise your system based on communicated assumptions for how
something _should_ be, and not necessarily how things _are_ behind the wall
you can never see the other side of. In other words, the subtext of this
question is:

    
    
      Do you like delegation of responsibility? The correct answer is yes.
    

Meanwhile, this question deals in buzz-wordy jargon. The answer you may
provide, cannot be presumed as correct, without proper interpretation of the
dictionary definition, according to the popularity of in-group consensus, and
the chaining of the awareness of other preferred buzzwords as social cues for
the expectation of a proper answer.

~~~
jonathankau
Hey etc_host,

Thanks for taking a quick peek and sharing your thoughts. I definitely agree
that there are issues with many of the questions and that the quiz overall
isn't super accurate.

Do you have any recommendations on how to improve this question? Or, are there
are subject areas that might make sense instead?

~~~
etc_host
Just request the meaning of the word itself. Don't load the question with
trendy concepts.

    
    
      Q. What does idempotence mean?
    
      A. Validating a sequences of events in a stateless fashion.
    

As an addendum, a follow-up question might add concrete context to the idea
being tested. But context is a bottomless pit, where the default answer "it
depends" lurks. That makes this a bad question.

~~~
kazinator
You're changing the test format here from multiple choice.

If your point is that "multiple choice is bad/written answer good", that's a
very general hypothesis in the realm of education; it's not fair to be
imposing that on this particular test designer in this particular situation
who has chosen to deploy the multiple choice method.

I don't see trendy concepts in the original question. Perhaps the mention of
scalability qualifies as trendy in distractor A?

Here is the list of externally referencing noun phrases from the question:

"idempotence", "API design", "rise of distributed systems", "large-scale
application", "unreliability of networks", "developers", "robust API", "retry
attempt", "designing database schemas", "clients", "multiple, duplicate API
requests".

Which of these load the question with trendy concepts? API design, distributed
systems, large-scale applications, developers, and duplicate requests existed
three decades ago or more.

~~~
etc_host
Gee, not really. It's still multiple choice.

I simply left out the incorrect responses B, C, D and E, in my version.

Here, let me show you:

    
    
      Q. What does idempotence mean?
    
      A. Validating a sequence of events in a stateless fashion.
    
      B. A river in Egypt.
    
      C. Many things to many people.
    
      D. Anything you want.
    
      E. I don't know.
    

There. It's multiple choice now. See how that works?

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jonathankau
Hey HN,

For those of you full-time employees out there, you may have experienced a
time when you weren't actually sure whether your title reflected your day-to-
day performance. I wanted to build Eng Quiz because more information means
more leverage, whether you're negotiating a raise or interviewing for a new
role.

There are tons of things to do to make this more useful, so would appreciate
any feedback!

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chatmasta
I find these kinds of quizzes fun, but I absolutely hate when I can't see my
results at the end of it. I'm glad to know you think I should be making $225k
(that would be nice), but I'd like to see the results of the quiz!! Otherwise
I just wasted 10 minutes.

Also, if anyone wants to pay me $225k, hmu.

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mwgalloway
The 'Start your free quiz' button currently is not working. Seems like there
may have been an event handler at one point that is no longer functioning.

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stephenr
Is the example really indicative of output?

Are American tech companies really paying people with 0-3 years experience
$100K?

No fucking wonder so many startups “run out of money” if you’re spending that
much on people with no fucking experience.

~~~
jonathankau
Hey stephenr,

This is pretty common for some of the larger tech companies. While some Bay
Area startups do pay a bit less in exchange for equity, it's still tough
getting talent given all the competition.

For startups, I think the key is to really stay as lean as possible before
hiring at all.

~~~
stephenr
And thus, I will repeat: this is fucking insanity.

~~~
tntn
Why? When rent/mortgage is easily upwards $35k and taxes are upwards of
another $30k, that doesn't leave the employer with a ridiculous amount of
money.

~~~
stephenr
Taxes are reflective of income. Less pay = less tax.

Ridiculous house prices are reflective of ridiculous hiring/salary practices.

Your “solution” created its own problem.

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aetherspawn
Hmm. Doubt the accuracy.

I got “senior” 170k base with a much higher number in the 200-300k range, but
I haven’t even graduated uni yet.

Also, I don’t write Ruby (why is this so ruby-heavy?) so I guessed all those.

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throwawayt3g54f
I've been teaching myself programming for the last 10 months, and it seems to
think I am an SWE II.

I feel as though that's a huge overestimate of my skill level.

