Hey Folks,
This was one of the post by the Facebook Engineer Jonathan Hsu (Posted Date : Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 6:15am) about how you can get into the Facebook Team by solving Puzzles (Infact Hard!). He explains how it helps programmers to make themselves stand out; no matter what their resumes or backgrounds but the codes really speak for them!
Post Content:
“Hiring at Facebook can be pretty intense. In addition to recruiting at top universities, we also invite candidates to send in solutions to programming puzzles on our jobs page. The puzzles provide a way for programmers to make themselves stand out; no matter what their resumes or backgrounds are, the code speaks for itself. Typically we receive nearly 1,000 submissions a month from all over the United States and abroad. The puzzles are difficult enough that only about 10% of submissions are fully correct, but the best authors are invited for job interviews. In an average year, about 5% to 10% of our new engineers are introduced to Facebook because of their puzzle submissions.
Today, we are posting a new puzzle called “Peak Traffic“. It requires authors to analyze simulated activity of many people using Facebook over time, coming up with a program that identifies which groups of people within the site are actively friends. Authors can test their programs on a small-scale example we provide, but the true test is whether the program will still work on a simulation of several million people.
We also maintain the Facebook Puzzle Master Page where more than 2,000 fans discuss our library of active puzzles. As Facebook’s Puzzle Master, I’m always trying to develop puzzles that can be solved in a variety of ways. I have been surprised at some of the creative and ingenious methods authors have used to solve some of our puzzles, and often learned a few things myself.
To celebrate the ways that people share ideas and programming techniques on the Puzzle Master Page, we are also running a contest on the Page, looking for excellent development setups by anyone who writes code, either professionally or for fun. Submitting an entry is as easy as becoming a fan of the Page and uploading a screenshot of your desktop as a fan photo. Make sure you caption the photo with a short (250 words or less) essay explaining why you like your desktop set up that way and how you use it. The top three entrants can win the same headphones, RipStiks or other gear that we use at Facebook. There are many other surprises down the line for Facebook puzzles, and this is just the start.“
Jonathan Hsu got his job at Facebook in 2007 by solving two puzzles!
Cheers..:)
