Totally agree it was a blast. I learned a ton about trading just reading various recommended resources (Harris Trading and Exchanges was a solid intro) and then solving the levels.
I don't think very many players did all the Starfighter trading challenges. patio11 or tptacek might be able to confirm, but I vaguely recall being one of like 100 or so to do all six levels of out of 10,000 that started. But I also had free time for playful coding and was nerding out on online challenges back then.
When Starfighter came out, I was energized and hopeful that hiring would go in this direction for programmers or that it would open doors to me as a job seeker that I couldn't every push through. No such luck.
From the hiring side, I have been on two hiring committees this year. Most applicants lacked any meaningful programming projects they could use to demonstrate skills. Something like completing a series of online challenges would be a difference maker.
That said, one candidate mentioned doing HackerRank challenges to learn Python and SQL, but totally flamed out on being able to even talk through a for loop in Python or come up with a simple select against a table in the in-person interview. Maybe nerves, but it also felt like the candidate's experience was 100% as just a warm body in various cubicle farms. It was very awkward. Several non-developers on the hiring committee felt like the candidate had actively lied about previous experience . . .
I don't think very many players did all the Starfighter trading challenges. patio11 or tptacek might be able to confirm, but I vaguely recall being one of like 100 or so to do all six levels of out of 10,000 that started. But I also had free time for playful coding and was nerding out on online challenges back then.
When Starfighter came out, I was energized and hopeful that hiring would go in this direction for programmers or that it would open doors to me as a job seeker that I couldn't every push through. No such luck.
From the hiring side, I have been on two hiring committees this year. Most applicants lacked any meaningful programming projects they could use to demonstrate skills. Something like completing a series of online challenges would be a difference maker.
That said, one candidate mentioned doing HackerRank challenges to learn Python and SQL, but totally flamed out on being able to even talk through a for loop in Python or come up with a simple select against a table in the in-person interview. Maybe nerves, but it also felt like the candidate's experience was 100% as just a warm body in various cubicle farms. It was very awkward. Several non-developers on the hiring committee felt like the candidate had actively lied about previous experience . . .