If this happens during your code screening, stop typing and walk away. You’ve already failed. From then on, the interviewer will simply bloviate over your code until the time runs out. DraftKings is headquartered on the east coast, and they don’t disappoint. My screener was like an OCD Ivy League tech bro mixed with Dwight Schrute from Dunder Mifflin (fun times).

Most companies will preface your code screening with some comforting reassurance, like: “We’ve reviewed your resume and past experience, and this is just a formality to make sure you are a good communicator in the code space.” DK is not like that. They have one test they give to every tech position, and it seems clear they ain’t interested in ideas. They want number pushers.

Screener didn’t seem interested in knowing my name until I was deemed worthy by the code gods. I won’t give away the test, but I’ll say it’s a nightmare just to look at. About a page and a half describing the questions, another page of class structures, then a bunch of clutter to make the code compile and test.

They structure a method with a bunch of parameters that pull from the pre-written classes, then ask you to fill in the method code. It's kinda like this: sort data to find the key to sort data to find the key to sort data to find the answer. If you’re thinking that reeks of a poorly structured API, you might be right, but I don’t recommend bringing it up. I think it’s obvious they want you to create a series of hashmaps while they observe and butt clench over Big O notation, so go at it.

Questions one and two were pretty easy and straightforward, so this is where I screwed up, of course. I rushed them. I’m used to testers being chill. You tell them your strategy, they say something like, “Cool, sounds good.” Then, when you do a typo or an annoying edge case bug, they go, “All good, I know what you were going for,” and they don’t hold it against you. Not the case.

I was all ready to move on to question 3 when I got the pull back. “Bro, broooah. Let’s go back and review.” This is where I should have quit. This was over. I dared to forget an “=” in my if statement. “Bro, bro... Now, when the loop hits 0, it’s going to throw an exception, bro,” or something like that. I can’t remember how many “bugs” he enjoyed pointing out, but friggin’ sue me. I’m used to working with APIs I know, compilers, and tools to help. I rush code, then check it and bug fix. My bad.

After about 10-15 minutes of this crap, I was able to try to move on to question 3. I barely got it solved, but it was clear he didn’t GAF. Test over, fail.

Thinking about it, if you want some help preparing, I’d say put the movie The Social Network on repeat for about a week, then chug Monster energy drinks while solving LeetCode questions blindfolded.

If you’re thinking, “Dude, you’re just butt hurt because you failed,” you’re about half right. I’m tired of these stupid tests. I get rejected all the time, but it’s because the company looked at my work and experience, then decided I wasn’t right for the job. I give these places a pile of past experience, references, projects they can download and play. They still can’t tell whether or not I can write a for loop? Seriously?

At what point do these things make them look incompetent?

The best places I’ve worked were places where the tech lead was so competent and confident, they took a five-minute look at my work, asked about 3 questions, and thought, “This guy is right for the role.”

All aside, the recruiter was super cool and seemed like a straight-up guy. Even said a ton of people have pointed out the problems in this process, but DK isn’t rushing to make any changes.

Not sure if this platform allows comments, but for entertainment purposes, I’ll add the first annoying comment I’ve gotten a million times from this topic. “Dude, this guy said he forgot an “=” in an if statement! That proves we need these tests times a hundred. I once worked with a guy who forgot an “=” in an if statement, and then the apocalypse almost happened when the year 2000 hit.”