Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Do you really get people who "handle exceptions" and "focus on efficiency, readability, speed" in a 30 min take home exercise?



Let me give you an exercise I really like for this.

Imagine a file with endless list of URLs. For each URL check if it contains an image. If it does, identify the top 6 colors and store it memory so it can be printed/stored later.

In something like python this can be as short as 20 lines of code: - open the file - read line by line - validate if the URL is valid - call the URL - check if it's image - if image, read pixel by pixel and check the color - store it in dictionary/hashmap

Here is what I look for: - does it compile/work? - what language did you choose? (like python is fast to write this in few lines but hard to introduce concurrency) - have you introduced some kind of caching for the URLs? (so you don't waste resources) - are you checking if the URL is valid or you just run them all and wait for errors/timeouts? - are you checking the file type from HTTP header or body of the file? - how do you handle errors? - are you attempting concurrency? If yes, how?

I actually done this exercise myself in dozen or so languages to see what choices I make based on the language. Obviously one can spend significantly more time on it if they really desire, but the design choices are visible from the beginning.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: