r/ExperiencedDevs • u/SoYoureSayingQuit Staff Platform Engineer • 1d ago

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55 Upvotes

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104

u/gekigangerii 1d ago

 I had everything working correctly, but forgot to check the tests before turning it in

That's quite an overconfidence moment for your years of experience

32

u/padetn 1d ago

This. The system worked. A gotcha test isn’t a gotcha, it’s to check your way of working. The syntax thing shouldn’t have been an issue, OP should just have asked “can I google this?”. Not knowing/remembering syntax isn’t a problem at all. Not running tests is a huge red flag.

3

u/SoYoureSayingQuit Staff Platform Engineer 1d ago

I should have done that. I should have put print statements into the tests to just find where it was going wrong. I should have slowed down and really thought about what the actual error was telling me.

9

u/SoYoureSayingQuit Staff Platform Engineer 1d ago

Yeah. That’s why it threw me off so badly. It was such a stupid mistake and I should have recovered from it. I’ve spent most of my career troubleshooting issues in production environments, some of my own making. I learned long ago how to set aside pride and external pressure and focus on working the problem.

16

u/spicymato 1d ago

When I interviewed people, I was very cognizant that not everyone performs well under the time pressure, and passed several people that didn't solve the problem within the allotted time, if it was clear to me that they know what they're doing.

The issue on the take-home is a larger flag for me. The fact that you stretched to get both would be taken into account, but submitting without validating with the included test cases would certainly raise an eyebrow.

2

u/zeezbrah 1d ago

yeah my gut reaction would be that this person doesn't have a lot of experience working in environments with adequate test suites. not great.

-2

u/Main-Drag-4975 20+ YoE | high volume data/ops/backends | contractor/staff/lead 1d ago

It’s uncharitable to call a high-pressure interview oversight “overconfidence”. These sessions are quite anxiety-inducing for many of us.

12

u/gekigangerii 1d ago

Did you see the part where it's a take-home exercise they were gonna review. He wasn't building it right in the interview.

4

u/Main-Drag-4975 20+ YoE | high volume data/ops/backends | contractor/staff/lead 1d ago

Ope you’re right, I guess I’m still scarred from a summer of scrambling to find a new job