I applied online for a remote position, sent them a description of my Android work with some samples. They respond back in a week with a timed challenge of a relatively easy question and a simple looking but very hard HackerRank math problem that really has nothing to do with algorithms or programming (or maybe I wasn't smart enough to see it in that time). HackerRank is lousy environment to write code under pressure and I wasn't sure if you can use an IDE. Also, the problem description wasn't 100% clear to me about the final requirement and there is no one to ask. I don't think the problems are written by Centralway.
I was rejected because others did better on the challenge, I didn't pass all the tests for the challenge(passed some, others timed out, they don't even mention coding for performance). I honestly don't care if people do well in HackerRank or not, I know my past history of successful projects for Fortune 10 companies. End users won't care either.
For the 90 minutes I wasted I could have been asked to implement a simple database app in Android from scratch, using async, Rx, or whatever, which is what I believe I would be doing. They could have asked even to implement some practical algo in the app. From there they could have looked at my coding style, UI layout, tests, etc. I know how to implement and meet deadlines for business/data type apps. If they weren't happy, that would be fine with me.
I did that problem first and I was so flustered that the second problem, albeit easy, probably took me a bit longer to do. The second problem requires you to deal with an output file, and HackerRank does not allow you to see the output of the file. I had some extra characters vs my debug output and wasted time on that. Why not just code Android apps with notepad.
Now, I'm grown up enough to know it is their company and they can do what they want, but if you are considering Centralway don't waste your time on this unless you are very good at the "hard" HackerRank brain twisters. Maybe this review is doing Centralway a service so they can get candidates that they want.
A company I worked for in the past tried those IQ games to hire developers, we ended up with cubes of smart guys but lots of forever open JIRA issues and angry customers. Then I came in and got a working product onto users PCs. All their candidate interviews now are similar to what I described.
My last client hired someone after me from a top 3% place, after my website took 4 months to do, delivered two weeks early, then I moved on. He emails me all the time to come back because it is going on a year now and it is still not done. I would go back but I want to do Android. I also take my hat off to the guys that did well on the challenge, but there is more to bringing a deliverable than a brain teaser, unless the job involves that.
The more I take these interviews the more I want to just go off and create my own apps or hire others. Maybe that is a good thing.
