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What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

Claudio B.
December 12, 2019

What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

Claudio B.

December 12, 2019
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  1. What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?
    speakerdeck.com/claudiob

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  2. 1. Checklist: is your exercise “good”?
    2. Example: the Retail Round exercise
    3. Lessons learned from 80 attempts
    (10 min)
    (5 min)
    (10 min)
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

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  3. • Contextual
    • Conversational
    • Impartial
    Checklist: is your exercise “good”?
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

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  4. • Contextual
    • Conversational
    • Impartial
    Checklist: is your exercise “good”?
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?
    Keep it pertinent to the job
    Don’t copy from online libraries
    Take notes in your daily routine

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  5. • Contextual
    • Conversational
    • Impartial
    Checklist: is your exercise “good”?
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?
    Keep it short
    Observe the candidate
    Allow for additional steps

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  6. • Contextual
    • Conversational
    • Impartial
    Checklist: is your exercise “good”?
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?
    Keep a scoring rubric
    Restrict to the same duration
    Accept any programming language

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  7. • Contextual
    • Conversational
    • Impartial
    Checklist: is your exercise “good”?
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

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  8. Clutter is considering charging customers for materials.
    We estimate the cost will be 40% of the chosen plan.
    E.g., for a Garage Plan ($30), the price of materials we
    intend to charge will be $12.
    For marketing purposes, we would like to round the
    price of materials to the closest integer amount that
    either ends with a 4 or with a 9.
    In other words, rather than $12 we would charge $14.
    Here are more examples:
    How would you implement such a method?
    You can use any programming language.
    $8 becomes $9
    $9 becomes $9
    $10 becomes $9
    $11 becomes $9
    $12 becomes $14
    $13 becomes $14
    $14 becomes $14
    $15 becomes $14
    The Retail Round exercise
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

    View Slide

  9. Clutter is considering charging customers for materials.
    We estimate the cost will be 40% of the chosen plan.
    E.g., for a Garage Plan ($30), the price of materials we
    intend to charge will be $12.
    For marketing purposes, we would like to round the
    price of materials to the closest integer amount that
    either ends with a 4 or with a 9.
    In other words, rather than $12 we would charge $14.
    Here are more examples:
    How would you implement such a method?
    You can use any programming language.
    $8 becomes $9
    $9 becomes $9
    $10 becomes $9
    $11 becomes $9
    $12 becomes $14
    $13 becomes $14
    $14 becomes $14
    $15 becomes $14
    The Retail Round exercise is contextual
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

    View Slide

  10. Clutter is considering charging customers for materials.
    We estimate the cost will be 40% of the chosen plan.
    E.g., for a Garage Plan ($30), the price of materials we
    intend to charge will be $12.
    For marketing purposes, we would like to round the
    price of materials to the closest integer amount that
    either ends with a 4 or with a 9.
    In other words, rather than $12 we would charge $14.
    Here are more examples:
    How would you implement such a method?
    You can use any programming language.
    $8 becomes $9
    $9 becomes $9
    $10 becomes $9
    $11 becomes $9
    $12 becomes $14
    $13 becomes $14
    $14 becomes $14
    $15 becomes $14
    The Retail Round exercise is conversational
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

    View Slide

  11. Clutter is considering charging customers for materials.
    We estimate the cost will be 40% of the chosen plan.
    E.g., for a Garage Plan ($30), the price of materials we
    intend to charge will be $12.
    For marketing purposes, we would like to round the
    price of materials to the closest integer amount that
    either ends with a 4 or with a 9.
    In other words, rather than $12 we would charge $14.
    Here is my scoring rubric (out of 10 points):
    • 5 points for any working solution
    • 1 point for good data structures
    • 1 point for additional cases (float input)
    • 1 point for proving the solution is correct
    • 1 point for readability (variable names, …)
    • 1 point for extra coding skills (no copy/paste,
    fast typing, keyboard shortcuts, finger position)
    The Retail Round exercise is impartial
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

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  12. Lessons learned from 80 attempts
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?
    • Can be solved
    • Often in Python
    • Five major approaches
    90% found a working solution
    [A] [B] [C] [D] [E]
    45% Python JS Java Ruby …

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  13. public static int round(double price) {
    int upper = (int) (price) + 1;
    int lower = (int) price;
    while (upper % 10 != 4 && upper % 10 != 9) upper++;
    while (lower % 10 != 4 && lower % 10 != 9) lower--;
    if (Math.abs(price - lower) <= Math.abs(price - upper)) return lower;
    else return upper;
    }
    for (int i = 8; i <= 15; i++) System.out.println(round(i));
    Approach A: increment/decrement
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

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  14. const roundMaterialPrice = (price) => {
    let fourLow = Math.floor(price - 10) - (price % 10) + 4;
    let fourHigh = Number(Math.floor(price / 10) + "0") + 4;
    let four = (fourHigh - price) > (price - fourLow) ? fourLow : fourHigh;
    let nineLow = Math.floor(price - 10) - (Math.floor(price) % 10) + 9;
    let nineHigh = Number(Math.floor(price / 10) + "0") + 9;
    let nine = (nineHigh - price) > (price - nineLow) ? nineLow : nineHigh;
    return Math.abs(price - nine) > Math.abs(price - four) ? four : nine;
    }
    console.log(roundMaterialPrice(8))
    console.log(roundMaterialPrice(9)) […]
    Approach B: distance to closest 4 or 9
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

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  15. def charge_price(price):
    last_digit = price % 10
    closest_ten = price - last_digit
    if 1.5 <= last_digit <= 6.5:
    closest_ten += 4
    elif 0 <= last_digit < 1.5:
    closest_ten -= 1
    else:
    closest_ten += 9
    return int(closest_ten)
    for i in range(8, 16):
    print(charge_price(i))
    assert(charge_price(11.2) == 9)
    Approach C: range of the last digit
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

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  16. @calculations = {
    0 => -1, 1 => -2, 2 => 2, 3 => 1, 4 => 0,
    5 => -1, 6 => -2, 7 => 2, 8 => 1, 9 => 0
    }
    def estimate(price)
    last_digit = price.round % 10
    return price + @calculations[last_digit]
    end
    puts estimate(8)
    assertEquals(estimate(12.2), 14.2)
    Approach D: hash table for the last digit
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

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  17. def materials_cost(plan_cost)
    base = plan_cost * 0.4
    marketing_round(base)
    end
    def marketing_round(cost)
    ((cost + 1) * 2).round(-1) / 2 - 1
    end
    (8..15).each do |i|
    puts "#{i}\t#{marketing_round(i)}"
    end
    puts marketing_round(11.2)
    Approach E: mathematical round
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

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  18. Lessons learned from 80 solutions
    What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?

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  19. What makes for a good onsite coding exercise?
    Thanks!

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