[AmberShah]

This is pretty normal (although not common, per se) and is generally a good thing. Good employers want to confirm what they see on a resume, because there's so much fluff out there. There are multiple ways of doing this: coding tests, open source, code samples, etc, and it's just a matter of personal preference of the hiring manager.

You have to see as a benefit to you (assuming you're competent), because:

1) You are much less likely to work with an idiot (most of them won't even submit a code sample, or it will be so bad it will be rejected), and

2) Since they can see the level of quality of your work, landing the job and negotiating a higher salary will be easier than just going on your resume alone, which everyone has

For awhile I was always unsure of what to send as a coding sample since most of the code I work was either for my day job or for contracting. I didn't feel comfortable "making up" a purpose for code. If that's you, you can try answering a public coding challenge and submitting it to the employer, like this one http://dotspots.com/jobs/challenges/

[frossie]

You are much less likely to work with an idiot

I can't stress this enough. I ask for code samples and you would be amazed how many people look good on paper, and even interview reasonably, and yet send in the most awful code.

Now it is true that even great programmers have some code in the closet (or even on github) that they are not totally proud of, but anybody who sends that kind of code to a hiring manager shows that not only they write bad code but that they don't know that it's bad.

Personally, I think code samples are the single most important factor on which to base a hiring decision. After all, good code is what you are hiring for, in most cases. It also levels the playing field with people who are really shy or don't interview well for other reasons, or who lack the right experience on paper.

Actually, I am boggled that anybody would see this negatively.

[berntb]

Ahh, insight...

I just assumed asking for code was stupid, since fakers could copy good code -- but I hadn't thought about the required taste in knowing what code to copy!

Obvious in hindsight, you have to think like a user (here, interviewer) to understand their problems.

An idea -- a web application that helps with hiring/interviewing? That is, keeps track of CVs and runs code examples through standard analysis, integrated with GMail, etc.

I am obviously not competent for doing this (see start of comment :-), so take it if anyone want it. (I assume it is already done?)

[frossie]

runs code examples through standard analysis

I am not saying that this would not be generally useful. In our case we're a specialised shop, without many short-listable applicants (we only ask code from candidates going forward to an interview), so it's no big deal for the tech lead to cast an eye over submitted code samples.

Not looking for perfection here - just to give you a basic example, I had a candidate submit code that did not have a single comment in it. I mean even if you wrote the code in the first place with no comments (naughty you), surely you'd stick some in before you sent it to somebody you wanted a job from, eh?

Obviously for the hotshot places that get hundreds of qualified applicants, that's a different story. Still, I think you can tell a lot about somebody's coding personality from looking at their stuff, not sure I'd trust a machine to do it.

[SkyMarshal]

Similar things have been done. Here's one:

http://i.seemikecode.com/

I've heard of others but can't recall the names or what to Google for them. They started around the time Jeff Atwood wrote his FizzBuzz rant, iirc:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/02/why-cant-programmer...

[AmberShah]

Since you asked... http://www.codeanthem.com

[kroger]

I think this is a nice touch ;-)

  Make it an example of what your best code looks like (OO, neat, testable & tested). Send the email to:

  Y2hhbGxlbmdlQGRvdHNwb3RzLmNvbQo=

[madhancr]

thanks for the tip on what to submit. I ended-up giving a small app I had done for a client. But, this may be better way to do it.