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Feedback after coding interview

5 points by sentyaev ↗ HN
Yesterday I've applied to a job and as a first step there were a coding challenge. So, I've spend about an hour to complete this.

And the only feedback I received was: "Dear %name%, thank you so much for applying at %company% and taking the time to do our coding challenge. We discussed your results within the team and unfortunately need to tell you that we are not able to offer you a position at this point in time. I wish you all the best in your professional endeavors."

Basically no real feedback what I do good, what I do bad or wrong. And when I've asked abut feedback, reply was: "unfortunately we have not enough capacity to provide feedback to every applicant."

I do not want to say that I'm the best developer ever, but when I invest my time I expect that company will provide a feedback.

What do you think guys? Is that ok? Is that common case? Do you have same experience and what do you feel about this?

6 comments

[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 22.9 ms ] thread
Peroni
Companies should provide constructive feedback to any candidate that invests time into a test or an interview process but the reality is that the majority don't.

Most will state that it's too laborious to provide individual feedback which is simply nonsense and insulting to the candidate. The reality is that most companies shy away from providing feedback for two key reasons. It becomes difficult and more time intensive to deal with a candidate who challenges the feedback and it can also potentially expose the company to a liability risk if the feedback isn't completely objective and factually based.

midgetjones
You've probably dodged a bullet.

An hour does seem short to me though - how long did they say it should take? I've generally found them to be 3-4 hours. Did you write tests? Any documentation?

sentyaev
They tell me it should not take longer then one our, so I provide pretty simple solutions. This from their mail: "The challenge should not take you longer than 1 hour and focusses on your problem-solving skills."

So, I was thinking they tell me is I solve problems or not, at least.

midgetjones
In that case, unless your code was horrifically formatted or just plain bad, I think I'd go with my first answer and say you've dodged a bullet.
Raed667
According to my (small) experience, smaller structures like startups tend to give better feedbacks than large companies.

I guess they have more respect and care more about human relations.

Spoom
Providing feedback, especially negative feedback, is perceived as a legal risk to the company.