Does Google still hire people via their foobar challenge?

post by Algon · 2022-10-04T15:39:35.260Z · LW · GW · No comments

This is a question post.

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  Answers
    8 joseph_c
    6 Dave Orr
    2 Parafox
    1 tricky_labyrinth
None
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In years since past, the foobar challenge first appeared. 5 levels of ever harder coding challenges, and if you bested the first three you'd be given the option of providing your details to Google. There was a decent chance you'd be sent an interview request sometime later or , if you applied to them yourself, you're application would be given extra weight. Recently, I got the challenge from Google and after getting to the last problem of level three, I wondered "do they even hire people using this thing anymore"? Some quick searches on medium blogs, quora and hackernews later, I was left with the impression that they don't but no one could cite a source for this. 

So does anyone have any info, definitive or otherwise, that would tell me and other lost souls whether Google still hires using this thing? 

Edit: changed the name

Answers

answer by joseph_c · 2022-10-04T16:20:50.879Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I don't think so. I've also done the foobar challenge in the last year or so, and got nada from them.

answer by Dave Orr · 2022-10-04T16:48:25.920Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Googler here -- I have no idea what happens to people who pass the challenge, but it's been widely reported that Google is in a hiring slowdown right now. So I would expect the response rate from Google to be lower now than 6 months ago, and probably lower than it will be in 6 months.

comment by Algon · 2022-10-04T19:36:13.373Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Is this a seasonal thing? Or does Google hire people in batches? If not, together with joseph_c's answer this suggests the odds are a worse than I thought.

Replies from: ChristianKl, dave-orr
comment by ChristianKl · 2022-10-04T20:12:41.595Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

It's a strategic decision to hire fewer people for the moment: https://tech.co/news/googles-hiring-freeze-continues

comment by Dave Orr (dave-orr) · 2022-10-04T23:40:52.818Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

What Christian said. It's evidently a response to the current macroeconomic environment. 

(I don't speak for Google in this and have no special knowledge about it.)

answer by Parafox · 2022-10-21T11:04:41.947Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I got the challenge a few days before you posted this and haven't heard anything yet, but I also haven't finished the level 5 problem yet.

answer by tricky_labyrinth · 2022-10-05T00:25:36.823Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I got in via it in 2018; not sure about recently.

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