Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I had the worst interview with these people (codercom) that I've ever had in my career as a developer.

It essentially consisted of them sitting me down with an old crappy laptop that kept logging out every few seconds and asked me to write an encrypted reverse proxy from scratch while simultaneously asking unrelated technical questions with a time limit.

I guess to test how people code with distractions and stress? But, yeah I definitely don't want to work anywhere that looks at their potential developers that way.




Ha good to know. I chose not to do the on-site after they asked if a weekend was OK.

Nope. If I succeed I’ll just end up on the other side of the table interviewing candidates on weekends...


Sounds like how you test the multitasking abilities of fighter pilots..


Its not for everyone.


It sounds like you are trying to excuse an embarrassingly bad interviewing process.


Bad because it select people who can handle stress and distraction and doesn't complain? If that what they looking for then I see no problem with it. They are free to select whatever criteria they see fit.

The way they interview in my work place these days also hard and imo ridiculous but yet they still find someone who meet all the criteria.


> Bad because it select people who can handle stress and distraction and doesn't complain?

Bad because they don't eliminate the stress (as much as possible) and distraction.


Well assuming the purpose are to select candidate that can handle those then it doesn't make sense to eliminate those.


Exactly. It's a glimpse into what they value most in candidates which is indicative of the culture.

If you want to work somewhere full of distractions, crappy hardware, and lots of stress then look for those kinds of interviews.


Which is not necessarily bad. It's relative.


If you're into that kind of lifestyle day after day, sure.


Not for me but I'm sure there are other who are okay with that lifestyle. To each their own.


True. It's a culture of burning people to the ground because they're disposable. Not everyone is into that.


Interviews should be a good experience, and I’m sorry we failed at that for you - it certainly wasn’t our intention




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: