Re:Jane Street – Our software engineering interviews are cha...
by janalsncm on Friday November 13, 2026 @05:40PM
(#50491110)
Let’s say for the sake of argument that 500 of the candidates have the prerequisite programming ability to actually do the job, which they can figure out with a very easy coding exercise, because that’s what the actual job requires.
To filter out the other 499, they can either ask a very difficult question, which based on the previous paragraph we have established is not a useful signal, or we can use a random number generator. Asking a very hard question also rewards luck in a different way, because a candidate who is lucky enough to have recently memorized that question or a similar one will be able to pass it. It does not generalize to anything actually useful for the job.
I submit that the random number generator is a faster and cheaper method.
I agree with you but this is a "simpler" test with a subjective analysis. Big Tech works at a scale where they probably want to quickly evaluate based on objective results. Did they crack the problem or not? Imagine having a pool of 1000+ candidates for a single role.