[clord]

Requiring a code-sample will increase the false-negative rate quite a bit. A lot of employees can't provide samples of their work because of NDA, contract, or other legal reasons. In a perfect world, everyone would have some side-projects, but not everyone has the time for side-projects or is permitted to contribute to open-source projects. For instance, my employer requires that I can't admit that I work on (well known) open-source projects.

Granted such companies are pre-lithic in nature, but none-the-less, employers will miss out on great people because they think publicly available code samples mean anything at all.

[starkfist]

Any programmer worth hiring has time to put together 200-500 lines of example code.

[hugh3]

Yeah, I think ideally any code sample they ask for should be something that any programmer competent for the position would be able to bang out in an hour. A twelve-hour project is unfair on the potential interviewee, but an hour is what you'd probably spend in travel time to an interview anyway.

[tomjen3]

That would depend widely on what the code is supposed to do, how long it takes to set up the things my software should work with, etc, etc.

In short, writing the code might not take that long, but all the other things you have to do would.

[peterbraden]

> For instance, my employer requires that I can't admit that I work on (well known) open-source projects.

Is this legally enforceable? What state?

[Zak]

It doesn't matter: his employer can fire him for it. Even if they're legally forbidden from doing that, they can find a way to get rid of him without admitting the reason.

[anthonyb]

IBM in Canada, from his LinkedIn. Not sure why it would be the case, but I suspect legal/patent type implications.