After the recruiter's talk, a young woman called me for the coding test. She asked me to implement the jQuery function $('.class-name') using plain JavaScript and recursion. It was a bit of a surprise, but I wrote it, and she appeared shocked that I did it perfectly. Immediately, she asked me to write $('.class-name > .another-class-name'), which selects all direct descendants. I wrote that as well. It seemed she had the perfect answer ready, as she then asked about "what if" scenarios. I debugged it, but only a few minutes remained at that time.

After the call, I used real HTML to debug my code and emailed her the answer with close to 20 test cases. Their reply was that they would proceed with other candidates.

I just think, if I answered the first question perfectly, and then they gave me a somewhat more complicated case to implement, I really don't know if they should expect perfect answers in such a short interview. I often feel interviewers study questions for hours and then expect perfect solutions in 20 to 30 minutes. When you can answer, they immediately give you another one. This might not be the best way to test candidates.

Implement jQuery's $(".class-name") using plain JavaScript and recursion.

Then, implement $(".class-name > .another-class-name"), which selects all direct descendants.