Game Programming Tests

Discussion in 'I wanna be a Game Programmer' started by kettiby, Mar 26, 2008.

  1. Lord Cuze

    Lord Cuze Putting in work One Of Us

    For the sake of anonymity and identity protection, I recommend removing your name!
     
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  2. Kaelic

    Kaelic Guest

    I figured it didn't really matter, but I took it out any way.
     
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  3. snoutling

    snoutling Troll One Of Us

    "We're too lazy to get you in for a face to face interview and don't want to deal with the awkwardness of those times when we get people who can't pass the programming test and have to tell them in person that there's no point in continuing. Plus it's a lot easier to work out who will put up with our bad work practices, so we understand if you don't want to submit, you probably wouldn't have enjoyed when we asked you to do crunch either."

    "not able to perform the basics" < programming test maybe?

    And on a less sarcastic note you're not always going to hire the right person. Some times you take a chance on someone and it doesn't pay off, or someone manages to talk their way into a job they can't perform. But that's what probation is for. It's not fun telling someone they haven't passed, and it's a drain on having tried to train them and given them feedback and it still not have worked out, but sometimes it's necessary.
    Leads need to be taught how to deal with probation including when someone doesn't pass and get the support from their managers.
     
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  4. IFW

    IFW Not allowed to say NFTS are shit One Of Us

    No need for programming tests - a simple math test will get rid of 90% of your worst applicants... People suck at math nowadays.
     
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  5. Dolph

    Dolph Gamer One Of Us

    To me it reads like they are saying that previously they got fooled by some candidates (could talk/cheat their way through the recruitment process only to be terrible when they start working), so if everyone does the same test they can look at actual code and compare apples to apples (everyone did the same task within the same constraints). They don't want people who are good at talking/networking, they want people who are good at programming.

    You could argue that the interview should be able to sort that out, but they have probably been burned badly in the past. It sucks, but it doesn't sound completely crazy to me.
     
  6. Kaelic

    Kaelic Guest

    Their reasoning may make sense to them, but they will most likely never end up with anyone experienced having this attitude. Unless they get lucky.
     
  7. weasel

    weasel Corporate Slut One Of Us

    But...they're asking someone to make a prototype of the product they are hiring for. Asking someone to do a small test is one thing, asking someone to invest time, potentially a lot of time prototyping is another. Especially if they do look at the code to 'even the playing field'. At that point it's not a prototype because they're scrutinizing for up to production quality work.

    You are going to get a bunch of people that prototype a game and in the spirit of prototyping don't worry too much about the code or implementation as a sample of their work. They'll fail, despite delivering what was asked and spending a lot of time on it. Then you'll get people who spend even more time prototyping but putting a better production style code together to review. They may be asked for interview...but they spent way too much time on it.

    To me it's daft to ask someone to deliver a prototype and then worry about the quality of implementation from any standpoint, but certainly from a code one.

    Really this is a company asking you to spend lots of time on something and downplaying the up front time investment, justifying what they know is an unreasonable ask by calling it a prototype. Then reviewing it as an example of the candidates production quality code.

    Run a fucking mile I would. That tells me all I need to know. Anyone saying 'no' to this kind of behavior is doing themselves a favour.
     
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  8. morgolock

    morgolock Troll One Of Us

    Two words: dot product.
     
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  9. IFW

    IFW Not allowed to say NFTS are shit One Of Us

    Do you still not know what one is?
     
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  10. JPickford

    JPickford Fuck Peter Molyneux One Of Us

    I learn every time I need it then promptly forget.
     
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  11. IFW

    IFW Not allowed to say NFTS are shit One Of Us

    Ive gotten close and personal with your code.. I know you know what it is - stop pretending ;)
     
  12. agilemethod

    agilemethod Literate Troll One Of Us

    Your university degree must have taught you at least one programming language? Once you learn one language, languages are pretty much all the same. A lot of companies are open minded to perform a code test in your main language, they will likely put you in a role using a different language anyway. Coding is pretty easy after a while and learning on the job happens a lot. So don't worry about the code test too much, just apply.
     
  13. IFW

    IFW Not allowed to say NFTS are shit One Of Us

    Eh?
     
  14. trave

    trave Muppet One Of Us

    Do we need another "how many professional games programmers have never got a degree" thread?
     
  15. qwerty

    qwerty Industry Professional One Of Us

    Just in case this is useful to people - a lot of companies have recently started using these online testing/evaluation sites for candidates, so in case you're preparing for interviews (like me), it's useful to be.. well, prepared.

    Colleague got this at the intreview with EA: https://www.codingame.com/

    People I know also had tests on these at various other interviews (Apple and ARM among others):
    https://coderpad.io/
    https://www.codility.com/ - https://app.codility.com/programmers/lessons/1-iterations/
    https://www.hackerrank.com/

    I'm not a fan of these in general for more senior positions, but it pays to be prepared.
     
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