I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at PowerShop (Auckland, Auckland) in Feb 2014
Interview
They got me to write a simple program online. They gave me a link to a website to publish my code. I wasn't allowed to use an IDE (just a text editor) with a language of my choice. The goal of the program was to tell the user whether they had correctly guessed a 4 digit pin number (and if not would tell them how many numbers they guessed correctly and in which position).
The difficult part of the question was not being allowed to look at existing APIs or using a compiler to check for syntax issues.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Did not get past the first stage which was to go online where they give you a test.
I applied online. I interviewed at PowerShop (Auckland, Auckland)
Interview
I responded to a generic job posting for the role of Software Developer on seek.co.nz.
The advertisement read like it was written by the marketing department or a PR consultant promoting the company. It was very light on mentioning any specific skill set requirements and more about promoting the company with lines long the lines of "get to use the latest technology ... work in a fantastic environment ...
I checked out their home page and send off my resume.
A short while later I got sent what seemed like an automated email response a request to take an online coding challenge.
The problem was simple however they added the constraint that you were not aloud to use an external editor had to code directly into their web page. You were also not aloud to "test" your program and had 30 minutes to write the code.
It wasn't possible for me to complete a fully working solution in their no-testable environment in 30 minutes, but I sent them a version I tested 30 minutes later.
The next day I got what seemed like another automated email saying I had not past the test.
I found the process quite insulting and pointless. The way I would describe it is similar to posting a job for taxi driver then giving them a test to see if they could drive while intoxicated.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The question was to write a simple program in any language that allows a user to guess a 4 digit pin containing only the numbers 1 - 5, If the user did not get the correct answer the program was to tell then how many digits they guessed correctly in the correct place and how many digits they guessed that were in the computers guess but not in the correct place....
