Tech Interviews Are Broken

Tim Wong
4 min readFeb 29, 2024

A few years back, I embarked on a journey that many in the tech industry are all too familiar with.

It began with excitement when I was handed a take home coding assignment with a three-day deadline.

The task was mine to conquer, and the potential reward?

A coveted job offer.

Determined to make every second count, I dove headfirst into the challenge and my weekend transformed into a marathon of coding.

Meals were ordered in, not for the luxury, but as a necessity to maximize coding time.

Every line of code was meticulously crafted, every function refactored until I had a polished gem of a project.

One that I was certain would be a one way ticket to landing the job.

With high hopes, I submitted my work and waited for a response.

Several days later, anticipation gave way to a familiar disappointment. The email arrived, its contents cold and impersonal.

“Thank you for your interest in our company. We regret to inform, you are not shortlisted for the role.”

The sting of rejection was sharp, but what followed twisted the knife even deeper.

In a quest for feedback, I visited the submitted Github repo, expecting to see…

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Tim Wong

Software Engineer & Writer. Enjoy reading the encapsulations that is formed in the enigma machinations of my mind.