Stop Testing for Programming Language Skills – Test for What Matters Most

by Desislava Nikolova

Capturing the full spectrum of programming qualities that make someone a good developer is a hard task.

Merely knowing one or two development languages does not make one a good developer.

Programmers may score well on language tests, be a prolific coder, and still be ineffective when working on large, complex software systems.

So how to make sure you hire developers capable of the development and maintenance of large-scale systems in an extremely competitive and dynamic market environment?

Test for What Matters

Codaid is the first free coding test platform that advances the idea by allowing you to select a specific programming test profile. 

Identifying and testing for the right mix of programming skillset may be more important than any other step in the hiring process. The seniority level of the programmer, their past experience and programming domain will define the stack of knowledge areas you want to test. 

Programming languages are important and are the lingua franca by which developers do their job.  However, senior developers share a common quality – they are able to re-apply the concepts and principles of good programming from one language to another. That usually happens with experience and the developer’s desire to understand and utilize coding best practices and advanced design patterns. 

With Codeaid you are not just testing languages or frameworks. You will be able to evaluate how candidates grasp more complex coding concepts such as OOD/OOP, asynchronous programming, API development, design patterns and software engineering best practices.

Every Codeaid test is segmented in clear-cut domains so that results are easy to interpret. A  holistic overview in the form of a spidergraph gives you the big picture and the overall skills’ mix you measure. You can assign a test based on the skills you are looking for.

’Find the Path Mini-Game’ test domains: 

Problem solving

Allows you to test the candidate ability to find a root-cause of a problem, identify alternative solutions, select the best alternative and implement it. We ask the candidate to solve a real challenge in its entirety, which grasps their ability to execute all those steps sequentially, in other words – problem solve. 

Architecture design 

Tests the candidate ability to develop an application or a feature which is stable, scalable and meets specific requirements. This gives you a clear picture of the candidate development skills beyond the programming language. 

Advanced algorithms 

Is an area covering advanced computing concepts such as multithreading, asynchronous programming, and WebSockets. Those are an  integral part the development of modern systems. If the developer understands and uses effectively those concepts, he or she can deliver software that can handle heavy data loads and complex functional scenarios. 

This is only a brief example of what you can test with Codeaid. Tests that are fine-tuned to test exactly what you need save you time hiring the right developers and allow you to focus on building great software.

Codeaid Helps You To Build Great Software

Programming is hard work but hiring managers look for efforts that deliver results. Expert programmers cost a lot, and may cost you even more if they are not as expert as expected or their assessment is strong but for skills you do not need. 

Codeaid’s vision is to remedy the flaws of existing test practices and to provide a viable alternative – tests that test for what matters.  Codeaid is proud to offer a solution that helps to build development teams that are fit for purpose and empower the modern IT workplace. Join us!

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