The Real Utility of Web-Based Language Tests
It's common to hear, the company you are interviewing with wants you to take a test on the language you say you're proficient in - just to make sure that you are what you say you are. It sounds very reasonable: You say you've been doing C++ coding, then taking a little test for an hour should be no big deal, right? Java, Ruby, anything can be tested, right? And this will let the employer know if you're really good at this. Right?
Not so much.
I've been taking and writing tests for many years, and I've no problem with tests of any kind - so long as the results of the test are balanced against other factors. For example, are you going to hire an architect for your house based on his ability to take a 60 min test on the loading of certain structures? Or the standard lengths of commercially available lumber? No. You want to see what he's done. That's what's impressive (or not).
You want to look at what a person has done, and can do, in order to know if you want to hire them. It's possible that a one-hour test is a good measure for that, but I'm guessing not. I've taken too many of these tests in the past couple of years to think that any web-based test can be a good, complete, and accurate measure of a person's ability to write real-world systems.
How are you going to test their ability to design solid thread-safe code? You can ask them questions about it, but that's not the same. You can ask about immutability, but that's not the same as knowing when to apply it, and when not to.
The problem is that these tests are billing themselves as an authoritative measure of the quality of an individual, and they can't possibly be. They are far too narrow. How can you possibly measure a person in an hour? No way.
So I had to take two of these today, and it just wiped me out. I got "decent", but not "great" scores - as I'd have expected, and that's about as good as I can expect. But I guess I need to look at these tests in a slightly different light -- if the employer is taking these ay face-value, then maybe that's telling me something important about their hiring policies, and maybe that's the critical take-away for me.
In all my years, I'd never inflict this on someone. It's just not a useful metric for hiring a person. Going into a place that requires them means that I'll be forced to ask for them. Not necessarily a good thing, in my book.
UPDATE: I got a mid-40's percentile on the C++ test. From this, you'd think there are a ton of developers that are better than I am. As such, the employer that was asking me to take the test said I wasn't qualified. It hurts, I won't kid you, but in the end, I honestly believe it's saying more about them than me, and that's really what's important to me.