Coding challenge for the bored

I use Python 2.7 myself, so this didn’t look right to me. I have never written a single line of Python 3, but I know how programming is supposed to work, so I got the easiest 8/8 ever.

4 Likes

I think most people (in industry anyway) would write something more like print('Hello {}'.format(a)) which also happens to work cross platform :slight_smile:

4 Likes

Python 2.7 annoys me because of its bad handling of print(). I tend to regard it as on the level of those antique BASICs. I wrote a little Wordpress site somewhere (I’ve ceased to maintain it) to explain how to connect Python to sqlite, with examples, and it’s Python 3 only.

Also, my programming goes back far enough that when I see any kind of print function my first question relating to any language of which I’m unsure would be “what does the JCL specify as the output of the print function?” Is stdout going to terminal, to a line printer or, for real laughs, going to a big scrolling display on the wall?

4 Likes

not in my company, those extra symbols cost money!

Didn’t bother doing the test mainly cause I don’t want to give Buzzfeed the clicks. I will however check the other sites mentioned.

8 Likes

So they’re the one that said "paper tape is expensive, let’s have 2 digit years because what could go wrong?"
It’s Better Manually?

7 Likes

That’s right!! CEO pay is only 202 to 1 in our company and we can’t have that!!

8 Likes

I’ve seen the same in interviews at a game development company. A lot of interviewees (and these are the ones who survived having their applications and resumes looked at) simply could not code anything at all – including ones who went through one of those intensive four-week 18-hour-a-day game dev boot camp things.

5 Likes

This is exactly what I kept expecting on all of the print statements. Had to log into a server after I was done to try it out and find that the space gets added in. That’d probably be something that would drive me nuts if I wrote python code any more often than once every few years…

4 Likes

If you come in through the front URL it isn’t hiring related. Just a bunch of topics with programing problems to solve, talk with others and try and push you score up.

But a company can pay to set up a private interview area and then send an interviewee there to solve one or more problems.

I will need to check out codewars. Thank you!

I just don’t get it. How do these people survive? How do they eat and pay rent when they can’t manage the simplest of tasks? I get that a lot of code is written by copy and paste but if you need to copy and paste a for loop something is wrong.

6 Likes

If anyone’s looking for a bigger challenge, the code golf stack exchange can be fun:

5 Likes

There are people who just can’t seem to do things unless they’re told by another human exactly what to do. At my second job we had this DOS-based program we sold. One of the interfaces (for configuring the format of labels to print) was slightly more involved than most of it, but among the very few pieces of text on the screen were the words “PRESS F1 FOR HELP.” You don’t want to know how many phone calls I answered from people who, instead of pressing F1, looked up our phone number and called us to walk them through it. I inevitably walked them through it by loading up the software, pressing F1, and reading the screen to them.

My spouse works at the circulation desk at a county library. When tax time comes along, there are always people who walk around the very prominent table that has piles of tax forms on it with a sign that says TAX FORMS, and another sign that explains that library staff cannot advise people which tax forms they need, in order to ask the following questions: 1. Where are the tax forms? 2. Which tax forms do I need?

7 Likes

Point made. :slight_smile: Just makes me wonder all the more how some people survive in this world.

I lean the other direction. I will go out of my way to avoid asking a person a question if at all possible. Even if they are sitting as a desk with a giant sign that says “help desk” and they are looking at me asking if they can help me. Sometimes I could argue the knowledge will be better retained if I figure it out myself but the real reason is I am stubborn and shy.

8 Likes

I’m the same way. Asking someone else is a last resort.

4 Likes

@Crashproof described it perfectly – people like that get the likes of us to help them. And that’s how they survive.

When I taught adult ed, it wasn’t unusual to see students who could zero in on their brighter peers and lech off them for “help”. I would sometimes set pop quizzes on purpose to clue in the leeches they weren’t learning anything – and to point out to the ones being leeched they were doing all the work.

I even had a student claim my making her do her own assignments was driving her to suicide – a feeling that immediately evaporated when I told a guidance counselor about it per policy.

6 Likes

At least with mobile phones and GPS I no longer have to listen to a passenger in my car insist we stop for directions any more.

Good point and very true.

5 Likes

Those are weird. I don’t understand any of these little languages they use. I can solve the problems, but not in any language parsimonious enough to win.

4 Likes

Wow, Python. What a shit language.

3 Likes

python is actually the BEST

and I’m not biased

just because I have most of a decade’s experience writing it professionally

6 Likes

H̶̲̯̣a̱̣͚͉̗̯!̙̺͇̺͚̮̪ ̩͙̩̹̫͖Y̩̠̘͝ǫ̞̣u̞͓̙̗͔͙̕ ͏̟̜͔c̖͚͢a̮͈͡n̢̪̪̳͍̖̣ ̡b́a̺̫͟r̪̹e̱̞̥̻͎͙̟͞ḽ̩͔͓͈̼ỵ̪͓ ̪̩͘c̳̳o̡̝̩̰̮̪͕n͖j̵͕̣ͅur̳̮̩̝ȩ̫̬̭͍͈̙͉ ͏̙u̠p̸͇̭̹̤̫̮̪ ͖͝a̡̼n͕̠ ̬͎̥į̝̝͕̹̝̫̪m̖̩̩̻̤p̖ ̬̙̰͎̭w͇̭i̧̲̜̪t̲̖̳̥͟h̜̯̟̕ P̠̳͖̤y̵̬̩͖͇t͕̩͕̲̻̠͞h̵̩͇̖̝̖̘̖o̪͔͍̱̦̘͉n͖͙̱̱͢.̟ ͏̺__R͕̮̹͜e͡a͏͉l̩̥__ ̠͈̦̟w̛̘̠o͖̟̪̹̹͢ͅr̙̗̙͕͙͎̕ḳ͢ ̕(̩l̟͚i̛ke̙͔͓̙͟ ̢̥̯͓̭̬c͔̪a̟͙ll̝̤̮̘i͏̹̯n̶̤͈͓̥͓͓͈g̤ ̸͍̘̮͓̰̹͙G̵̳̻̖r̡̜͙̩̙ḙa̫͓ṭ̪͞ ̛̘͍̠̺̜̻͓O̦͍l̹̠̭d̹͍̜͉͖̯ ̟̞̘On̰͝e̮̤̞̺̱̟͎s̵̳͖͇)̲̀ ̘̭͈n͎̮̬̭e̵̬̲͍ẹ͉̩ͅḓ̀s̙͚͓̠͙̣͝ ̭̞͔̗͍͖̦A̷͓͖̰̝͖̺̬P̮͝L̴̪.̢̞̝̙̻

4 Likes

A zalgo novelty programming language would be cool. Maybe once where only the accents carried semantic meaning, so you could overlay it to an arbitrary text… hmm…

3 Likes