In my experience, it's never a good sign when coding exercises are brought up when I'm being interviewed. I make a point of not doing that my self when I'm interviewing because I consider it disrespectful and actively harmful. Most people that I'd actually like to hire would hate me doing that.
I've actually had interviewers apologize for their lame test during the interview to me; probably because they sensed my annoyance. Usually it's a thing that HR insists on as a screening mechanism because they've heard that that is a thing they should do. Also a work culture where that is a thing breeds employees that believe it is actually a good thing. It's the old A's hire A's, B's hire C's thing. Usually, screening becomes necessary when you have recruiters supplying you a lot of C's with the occasional B. Those recruiters don't have access to either good candidates or good projects, typically.
Either way, there's a class of engineers that will happily decline to take coding exercises because they have better options to choose from because they just are that good and are probably not even answering the spam that your recruiter is shoveling out by the thousands. That's actually the kind of people I'd like to hire. I don't waste my time with doing interviews for jobs a lot and any hint of a coding exercise is a sure way for me to loose interest. I mostly ignore recruiter spam. Just like most half decent engineers I know.
It's actually a good way to screen projects; there is a lot of mediocrity in this industry. I look for a certain level of quality in projects I join. Coding exercises as part of the process is a red flag. Not necessarily fatal but a red flag still. Especially when interviewing seniors with decades of experience. Never really ends well and I tend to end the process early when that happens.
Good engineers don't come begging for a position on your project/company. You actually have to work hard to get them onboard. I know, because I've actually hired a few people that were genuinely very good. Better than me even. I love working with smart people and I love it when I find someone that is clearly razor sharp. When you come across such a person, you become a sales person. It's a time critical process where during the brief moment this engineer is actually not busy working for somebody else, you have an opportunity to convince them to work for you. That's how I interview and that's what I'm looking for when I'm being interviewed. Anything less than that signals to me a level of indifference and mediocrity that I probably need to walk away from.
Confronting candidates with some lousy coding exercise is not a great way to sell them on the opportunity. It screens candidates alright: you lose many of the good ones that you probably don't even get to talk to. Beware the candidates that get really enthusiastic about your coding exercise. They might still be good but it's something to explore further during the actual interview.
I've actually had interviewers apologize for their lame test during the interview to me; probably because they sensed my annoyance. Usually it's a thing that HR insists on as a screening mechanism because they've heard that that is a thing they should do. Also a work culture where that is a thing breeds employees that believe it is actually a good thing. It's the old A's hire A's, B's hire C's thing. Usually, screening becomes necessary when you have recruiters supplying you a lot of C's with the occasional B. Those recruiters don't have access to either good candidates or good projects, typically.
Either way, there's a class of engineers that will happily decline to take coding exercises because they have better options to choose from because they just are that good and are probably not even answering the spam that your recruiter is shoveling out by the thousands. That's actually the kind of people I'd like to hire. I don't waste my time with doing interviews for jobs a lot and any hint of a coding exercise is a sure way for me to loose interest. I mostly ignore recruiter spam. Just like most half decent engineers I know.
It's actually a good way to screen projects; there is a lot of mediocrity in this industry. I look for a certain level of quality in projects I join. Coding exercises as part of the process is a red flag. Not necessarily fatal but a red flag still. Especially when interviewing seniors with decades of experience. Never really ends well and I tend to end the process early when that happens.
Good engineers don't come begging for a position on your project/company. You actually have to work hard to get them onboard. I know, because I've actually hired a few people that were genuinely very good. Better than me even. I love working with smart people and I love it when I find someone that is clearly razor sharp. When you come across such a person, you become a sales person. It's a time critical process where during the brief moment this engineer is actually not busy working for somebody else, you have an opportunity to convince them to work for you. That's how I interview and that's what I'm looking for when I'm being interviewed. Anything less than that signals to me a level of indifference and mediocrity that I probably need to walk away from.
Confronting candidates with some lousy coding exercise is not a great way to sell them on the opportunity. It screens candidates alright: you lose many of the good ones that you probably don't even get to talk to. Beware the candidates that get really enthusiastic about your coding exercise. They might still be good but it's something to explore further during the actual interview.