Consensus seems to lean toward this being satire. However, that’s actually part of the problem with online discussions of interviewing right now: Everyone loves to read and write about how developer interviewing is flawed, but no one wants to go out on a limb and make suggestions about how to improve it. It’s easy to be a critic and it’s fun to be smugly dismissive of those companies who rejected you after long interviews, but it’s hard to actually step into the hiring manager position and find the best candidate without disappointing some people along the way. Writing satire or criticism is an easy way to win clicks and views because you’re not going to alienate people with the tried and true “all interviewing is bad” claim.
Sadly, many of the implied alternatives to coding interviews are becoming a regression toward credentialism: People who have already secured good jobs, impressive internships, or prestigious university degrees would much rather coast on those credentials than be challenged for a few hours during an interview. This feels good if you’ve already made it or you grew up with the right connections, but it’s far from ideal you’re a promising developer who doesn’t yet have the right credentials on your resume to unlock the job. To many people, the coding interviews is a chance to break the traditional mold and land a job that would have been out of reach otherwise.
Sadly, many of the implied alternatives to coding interviews are becoming a regression toward credentialism: People who have already secured good jobs, impressive internships, or prestigious university degrees would much rather coast on those credentials than be challenged for a few hours during an interview. This feels good if you’ve already made it or you grew up with the right connections, but it’s far from ideal you’re a promising developer who doesn’t yet have the right credentials on your resume to unlock the job. To many people, the coding interviews is a chance to break the traditional mold and land a job that would have been out of reach otherwise.