[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