Computer-based test for interview

As an undergraduate student who has failed many times in programming and learned programming only by relying on a large number of competition question banks to practice, he will pay special attention to and compare the computer-based exams of different companies when they encounter them.

The computer-based test is probably an evolution of the legendary "whiteboard questions". After all, if you really use a whiteboard, the difficulty and length of the questions you can write will be limited, and there may be questions about whether the writing on the blackboard is good or not, and whether you can read it or not. In my imagination, I can only test simple questions, observe the degree of carefulness and basic logic, at least I haven't really encountered the problem of writing on the whiteboard.

The following is a brief introduction to the various computer-based tests I have experienced (including the online program test before the interview)

When I applied for my previous job, it was a training program. It did not require any prior knowledge. As long as I passed the basics, I could join. After three months of training, I officially joined the department for development.

All applicants' resumes will first be screened for science and engineering related departments, or program-related backgrounds, in short, "enough to convince yourself that you may have a considerable degree of program logic ability", and then send the program test link to these preliminary qualified people. Waiting for the job seeker to answer, here is the codility website.

Regarding the first step of screening, you can’t blame the company for not giving opportunities. After all, the company’s purpose is to find suitable candidates more efficiently. What's more, grading also requires manpower and time.

Based on efficiency considerations, in fact, each company will more or less have internal recommendations related rules. After all, it is at least more credible than the resumes to endorse their abilities and characters by relatively familiar internal employees. In the past, the company's situation was guaranteed by human resources. "If a friend with unrelated experience wants to participate in this program, you can ensure that you have the opportunity to write program test questions by talking to human resources directly."

Some features of codility are added here. The question maker can set the number of questions, the difficulty, and the time limit for answering, as well as the language of answering. The answerer clicks the link and selects the button to start the answer, and the timing starts.

The answerer has to enter the code in the input block on the web page to answer within a limited time, use the sample test data verification program to submit the test, after submitting the test, the next question can be taken, and the test results can be seen after the whole test is over , which includes a score for correctness and a score for program performance.

From the questioner's management interface, you can see all the operation process of the answerer in the program block during the period from the start of the answer to the submission of the paper, so the thinking process, the solutions that have been tried but given up, etc. are all visible.

In the follow-up interview, the interviewer can ask questions based on this process, such as "What did you want to write this paragraph before you changed it?", "Do you think this is an efficient solution?", etc. Interviews are also possible gain something.

This kind of online programming test is not recommended to answer in the development environment on your own computer, and then paste the finished product on the web page. First of all, the above part about ideas cannot provide more information during the interview, and more importantly, the interviewer can't judge whether the applicant has found the answer and copied and pasted it, so what I heard is that this situation is brushed out. Chances are high.

It is best to find some suitable websites beforehand to be familiar with this answering method, remember to remember.

As for the test conducted during the interview, because it will prolong the overall time of the interview, there are generally not too many questions, and there are no previous notices.

During the job search this time, there are three companies that follow this model. Let’s talk about the first two first.

The first school did not inform in advance. In the afternoon, after entering the link of the online chat at the appointed time and saying hello, they received the request of "you go out first, write this test paper and then come in", and then spent an hour writing it and then started interview.

What should I say, the question itself is not difficult, but it’s really a shame that I just didn’t arrange interviews with other companies after this, otherwise I think about the actual time spent. , and such an interview time was completely unexpected. I hope that this kind of raid will not be encountered again.

The second is to interview at the company's address. From 10:00 in the morning, a 1-hour test is conducted, and the results are handed over to the supervisor before the interview.

The content of the test questions is divided into three parts, namely jQuery, algorithm, and database. It can be seen that the questions are related to the technology required by the work. The answering environment is the VS code that has been set on the company's computer. There are fixed execution methods. After writing the program, check by yourself whether the result is as expected.

The third one... (takes a deep breath), is the most tiring interview I have personally experienced, and it is also the company I belong to now.

The time started at 2:00 pm. After reporting to the company, I was taken to a corner of the office. There were four seats separated by partitions, each with a computer. On the screen, we could see the Eclipse opening the project.

After the other three job seekers arrived, the human resources issued a paper question that could be used for a long time, and began to explain the rules of the test. There were 12 questions in two hours in total. The questions were answered in JAVA, and the questions were all difficult. But the difficulty is different, and choosing the questions to answer is also a part of it. Check out the given questions for five minutes, then withdraw the questions and start the test.

The somatosensory difficulty is about the primary or intermediate level of the uva question bank, and the answering time is quite urgent (the reference object is the three-hour and 7-question of the undergraduate program ability test). In addition, after one hour of answering, the Human Resources Committee will come to confirm the number of completed questions for each person. If the number of questions is small, you may be asked "Do you want to continue the challenge?"
Very exciting.

Then, at the end of the IQ test, filling out the information sheet, and interviewing with the interviewers and human resources, it was already 6:30 in the evening, and the original plan to go to the cinema to see Vampire Hunter D had to be abandoned (off topic).

In short, this is what I have experienced in interview-related programming tests. The advice I can give is to practice more often, and maybe try to use different writing methods to complete the requirements of the same question, because it is hard to say whether there will be additional restrictions during the test.