Hi HN!

We're James and Angel, the founders of CSPA (https://cspa.io).

The Computer Science Proficiency Assessment (CSPA) is a standardized assessment for software engineers. We find software engineers to take our exam, and then share the assessment results with employers, who can then hire these candidates for free.

James was the founder of Crunchyroll and oversaw product and engineering. Angel also worked at Crunchyroll. We decided to start CSPA because:

1. There are many self-taught programmers out there who are really really good, but don't get a fair chance because they don’t have a degree. We want to give these people an equal opportunity to pursue their career. That's why there are no eligibility requirements to take the CSPA. You can come from any background, and if you get a high CSPA score, you’ll stand out.

2. As hiring managers at Crunchyroll, it was challenging to find great software developers. We wanted a service that quantitatively compares job applicants in an unbiased way, and ALSO did that assessment for us. In short, we wanted candidates to come to us pre-assessed. It would have saved us and the applicant a TON of time.

3. As software engineers, we hated applying for jobs. We did the same phone screens, the same coding challenges, and same whiteboard exercises over and over again, company after company. It's a huge waste of time. There has to be a better way. Why couldn't we just do it once, and then reuse the results at every company we apply to? Keep it DRY, right?

If you want to take the CSPA, you can register here: https://cspa.io/winter-2018/register. The first 100 people to sign up can use code "LAUNCHHN" to waive the exam fee.

If you're an employer looking to hire a pre-assessed candidate, sign up here: https://cspa.io/add-employer. We don't charge a recruiting fee.

If you're interested in joining the Technical Steering Committee, apply here: https://cspa.io/tsc/apply