programming contests as a way of finding/evaluating offshore talent...

PFJ paul at all-the-johnsons.co.uk
Wed Apr 19 15:02:42 UTC 2006


Hi,

> i'm looking for opinions on the "worth" of programming contests as a way of
> judging the talent of potential software developers...
> 
> any thoughts/pros/cons would be appreciated..

There are pros and cons to the system. 

Cons

The biggest con is being assured that the work the person submits is
actually theirs and not just ripped from somewhere else/been onto usenet
to get help yada yada yada. 

There would then be the problem of a potential language barrier. Sure
they may understand English, but do they understand what you're after!

You have to have a fair method for marking. Is it a simple pass/fail,
are marks awarded for cleverness and clarity of code, if they prefer C#
or Java to C or C++ will they be marked down. If they're using a GUI,
will you add or subtract if it's a simple system (like GTK) or a more
complex one (Qt or wX)?

If they supply something that works under VS.NET and not gcc or mono,
will it be thrown out?

Pros

Usually a very quick turn around (you set the deadline)

You get to set the parameters and the objectives to the competition so
is very centred towards what you need. This is a double edged sword
though.

The decision on any aspect is yours

Out of interest. Would the competition be open to just a select section
of the community or would it be open to everyone?

TTFN

Paul
-- 
"Logic, my dear Zoe, is merely the ability to be wrong with authority" -
Dr Who




More information about the fedora-list mailing list