[Shane Hudson]

Interview Street have just announced the second Code Sprint contest in which over 75 technology companies including Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Dropbox are all looking to hire. Conventional job vacancy adverts have never been a good way of hiring, so this contest allows programmers to apply by doing what they love... programming!

To enter the contest you will need to solve both algorithmic and real world problems, which is a lot more useful than just handing them a nice piece of paper saying you can do it. This lets you prove what you can do, show them why you would be a valuable asset rather than just desperately needing work to pay off the mortgage.

The contest starts Friday, January 6th, 8 pm PST.

Quote

Coders who sign up for the challenge will receive an email on Friday evening when a set of programming problems becomes available. As they solve problems throughout the weekend, they will earn points and can see how they stack up against other participants. After the challenge ends on Sunday night, the participating companies will have the opportunity to contact specific candidates for job interviews based on their performance.

This Online Coding Contest Could Get You a Job Interview With Facebook, Apple and Amazon - Mashable

I will not be entering the contest but might give the problems a try!

If you enter, let us all know how it goes... good luck!

This post has been edited by Shane Hudson: 05 January 2012 - 04:09 PM

[Mikhail]

I actually do like the idea of this and I would actually love to participate however with time restrictions and upcoming semester starting next week + having a full time job will make it difficult for me to participate.

But nevertheless I think that the idea of the so called "Coding Contest" is a great idea and I am very sure that it will help a lot young and talented programmers to land a job.

[skorned]

This is a great find! Wish I'd known about it earlier so I could have planned for it. Haven't gotten very far with participating in coding contests in the past, but I think I'll actually try to see this to the end this time. Which language do you think would be a good choice to use? I have at least tinkered in the past with these: C++, Java, C#, Python, but need the API references for all of them open while actually writing code.

[111027]

That depends. Facebook uses a lot of Javascript. Google use Go!, C++ and Python. They're not really looking for programmers who aren't proficient in the languages used there, so that's a starting point.

[wordswords]

Is it worthwhile applying if you are based outside of the US?

[111027]

Definitely. Google itself has like a trillion offices outside the US and all. A guy at my university was hired by facebook just recently. So if you think you have the skills, go for it.

[Shane Hudson]

111027, on 06 January 2012 - 10:23 PM, said:

That depends. Facebook uses a lot of Javascript. Google use Go!, C++ and Python. They're not really looking for programmers who aren't proficient in the languages used there, so that's a starting point.

I don't agree. They are looking for 'real' programmers, not people that know a language or two. You should be able to jump into *most* languages in a few hours to a couple of days max.

[111027]

I didn't say they were looking for any people who know language x :-) But it sure does help.

[Shane Hudson]

111027, on 07 January 2012 - 01:31 PM, said:

I didn't say they were looking for any people who know language x :-) But it sure does help.

Ah perhaps I misread you?

Quote

They're not really looking for programmers who aren't proficient in the languages used there

That seems to me to mean they ought to know the languages used at the companies!

EDIT: Nice, 1000 posts

This post has been edited by Shane Hudson: 07 January 2012 - 06:51 AM

[111027]

Well, they're generally willing to take in programmers who do not own at language X, but they do hope to find ones that do. Simple enough to understand, i believe.

[LetMeFinclOut]

Great find indeed. There were plenty of well thought-out challenges and I just wish I had more time to dedicate to them.

One curious question, though... (Google has failed me)
For many of the challenges, there was a note to output the results modulo 1000000007. (to prevent overflow, apparently) What I don't understand is:

• What does that even accomplish? I would reason that <overflowed-number> is no better an answer than <overflowed-number> % 1000000007.
  
• What's significant about the number choice 1000000007?