How to Conduct Interview Coding Challenges for Developers?
Hiring a software engineer or developer is a tiresome task, isn’t it? Are you also thinking of conducting interview coding challenges? But do these coding challenges actually help during interviews to find the right developer for your next project? And if it does, how to actually conduct interview coding challenges for developers?
So many questions may be hovering in your mind right now, to which you are not able to find the answers. But don’t worry. Finding the right developers for your IT projects isn’t actually that much of a hard task. Just the right approach is required to assess candidates’ theoretical knowledge as well as their problem-solving skills and work-related mindset.
In this blog, we’ll go over a variety of interview coding challenges, along with their types and definitions. Additionally, we’ll discuss the best ways to organize such coding challenges to find the perfect candidate later on here.
What Is a Coding Challenge for Interview?
Coding challenges for interviews are essentially technical screening tests used by businesses to evaluate candidates’ real-world abilities. They are also known by names like hiring coding challenge or take-home projects, which includes problems based on:
- Practical issue/ real-world problems
- Problems related to algorithms and their applications.
- programming problems to test fundamental ideas like data structures and algorithms.
Such coding challenges help recruiters determine whether a candidate can work under pressure and come up with unique ideas.
By 2023, India is anticipated to surpass the United States in terms of software developers. The number, which was about 2.75 million in 2017, is expected to rise to 5.2 million in 2023. This is not the case only with India, but other countries too are on the same boat. However, there is a flip side to these encouraging statistics: 74% of employers regret hiring the wrong candidate.
So, if you’re looking to hire developers and don’t want to end up regretting it later, use this guide to save the best for you. And the best part is that you can now take advantage of the growing trend of working-from-home opportunities. This trending work culture has made remote hiring a go-to option for a number of employers.
Different Types of Coding Challenges
Take-home:
Take-home coding challenges are situations where the employer or hiring manager will mail the coding assignment to the selected candidate. S/he then will finish the assignment within the given deadline in an environment where they feel comfortable. This gives them the sense as if they are working as a part of the team.
And these coding challenges are usually preferred by companies looking for international talent. Or the businesses that are adopting a hybrid or remote-first setup.
Employers can make an unbiased assessment of the candidate and their skills using take-home coding challenges. Because some respondents become nervous during the in-person interview process and might underperform. Therefore, making a decision based solely on that will not be a wise one.
But every coin has two sides, as the saying goes. Similarly, this form of coding challenge has its other side as well. Hiring managers frequently use the tactic of giving applicants a ton of difficult and lengthy tasks. They may need up to weeks to finish the assignment, which drains their energy and demotivate them altogether.
Remember that finding the ideal candidate is the primary goal. Abusing take-home tests is a surefire way to stop outstanding candidates from moving forward in the hiring process. Avert making this misjudgment!
Pair programming:
Businesses or enterprises that want to hire a group of skilled and cooperative software developers typically prefer this. It allows a hiring manager to assign a problem to two or more candidates and have them collaborate to find a creative solution.
This test is useful for assessing a candidate’s interpersonal skills and communication abilities. However, because it puts the applicant on the spot, it might not be the best way to assess their problem-solving abilities. Therefore, involving senior candidates who won’t be as overwhelmed by the live-coding experience should only be given such coding challenges.
Whiteboarding:
This kind of coding challenge is included during the in-person interviews. Here candidates are asked to perform the coding task on a whiteboard in front of the hiring team. This however is a stressful situation for the respondents. But on the other side, it also helps employers to see how the interviewee responds in a stressful situation.
This kind of coding challenge is still preferred by MAANG (Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) companies when hiring candidates.
However, a poor whiteboard interview can give candidates a really bad impression of a business. Additionally, the business might miss out on otherwise fantastic candidates who felt uncomfortable and couldn’t thrive in the situation.
Screening coding challenges:
Screening coding challenges are type MCQ tests where the developer has to pick the right answer out of the given options. It is used as a pre-qualifying step and is regarded as an easy way to test a candidate’s knowledge.
The hiring manager will not have to spend as much time reviewing applications or resumes. rather they can give questions with multiple options and ask respondents to simply select the correct one.
However, this restricts employers from assessing a specific candidate’s procedures and problem-solving abilities. Neither does it guarantee that a candidate will be able to produce code that is more efficient.
Why Do Businesses Prefer Coding Challenges to Interview and Evaluate Developers?
There are numerous benefits of adding coding challenges to the interview process. An interview code challenge is superior to a standard interview in that it does more than just assess your abilities:
- The world is increasingly adopting remote work culture. As a result, assessing a candidate’s technical skills through video interviews is of no use. It is vital to make them face real-world problems to help employers assess their problem-solving abilities as well.
- Potential employees are put in a work like environment through such coding challenges.
- These coding assessments also assist the recruiters in determining whether a candidate meets certain criteria, such as: –
- strong foundational knowledge of programming
- critical and analytical thinking skills
- aptitude for solving issues.
- performing under pressure and developing the best solutions
Best Practices for Interview Coding Challenges
Although coding challenges are gaining popularity, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to interviewing programmers. In order to measure a candidate’s performance objectively, the coding challenge should have clear goals and measurement systems.
In addition to saving hiring companies time, coding challenges assist candidates in showcasing their technical skills.
Focus on real issues:
When candidates get the actual problem to solve, they are able to demonstrate whether they are the best fit for the position. This also helps employers analyze the impact candidate can have on the business.
For this, you can take the issues faced by your company in the past or maybe something presently going on. Even candidates will gain a better understanding of the situations they might encounter on the job.
The more precise you are, the better candidates you will find who will be a good fit for the position.
Establish the conditions of the challenge:
It’s critical that you evaluate candidates fairly when considering a number of them for the same position. Make a standard test that you give to all of your applicants and do your best to keep the conditions uniform. This will streamline the process and provide you with a benchmark against which to compare your candidates.
Interview with an open mind:
Don’t simply focus on what is right and what is wrong. Your main goal should be to see how the candidate responds. Because as it is said, the journey is more important than the destination.
This is particularly crucial in face-to-face interviews where you can speak with and observe the applicant in action. You’ll be able to assess and analyze how they approach and solve proposed problems. As it’s more crucial to approach the challenge with the proper mindset than it is to arrive at the right conclusion.
Don’t make them rush into solving the assignment:
Give the candidate enough time to complete the challenge. They should be able to finish the challenge without feeling rushed. Offer them the choice to take the assignment home and submit it later, if at all possible.
Be prepared to respond to queries:
Be prepared to respond to inquiries. If candidates are unclear about the challenge’s requirements, they should feel free to ask for clarification. Afterward, provide feedback on how they did. They can use this to hone their abilities and get ready for upcoming interviews.
Test technical proficiency with fair and impartial coding challenges:
Avoid algorithms-based puzzles and brainteasers. Even though they can be fascinating, completely depending on them cannot clearly reveal the candidate’s technical interview skills.
There are many sites on the internet teaching developers to ace the interview. And going with the trend will not do any good. You have to make a crucial choice in this situation as the employer. Use the coding challenges that are fair and objective to evaluate technical skills and choose the best applicant.
Final words:
Coding challenges are effective ways to assess a candidate’s problem-solving skills as well as their methods and strategies. Your candidate selection process can be greatly streamlined and made easier with a good coding challenge.
BookMyTalent is the best platform if you want a simple hiring process to find talented remote developers. We make use of a reliable vetting module and a clever matching system that are both powered by machine learning and AI. It makes it simple and quick for businesses to put together their ideal engineering team.
Contact us today and build your dream team!