It’s very likely that the company you are applying to will give you a technical assignment to be completed in 2-6 days. Your performance on the assignment will determine to a large extent whether you will get the internship or job.
At first technical assignments might seem like a daunting challenge, but understanding the mechanics and learning the right approach will help you feel more relaxed and confident about them.
Technical assignments are usually a simulation of the work you'll be doing for that company and they give the hiring manager an understanding of your skill set. Starting your internship or job with real understanding of your skills will help you in the short term as the company will know how much support you will need moving forward.
In this folder you'll find references to various real technical assignments companies used in the past to test job applicants that you can practice with. Additionally, check Fayz Ahmed’s “List of assignments I was given when interviewing for companies”.
- It might happen that the company expects you to use a technology or framework you don’t know. If this is the case, you can always ask to use a technology you feel more comfortable with but it might also be the case that the company wants to see how well/fast you can adapt to new things and learn.
- Solving technical assignments is something that you will get better with over time assuming you practice. Be sure to check the whole PostGraduation package repo which is mostly about technical assignments and specially the “Technical Assignment Tips for HackYourFuture Graduates” and the “Groom your showcased repositories” in Your Personal Brand repo!
- Ask questions! If something is not clear in the assignment, feel free to write a friendly email back asking for some clarifications. Keep in mind though that it might also be that a technical assignment keeps things open and unclear on purpose. Companies do this so that they can see how you will implement it, but of course also how proactive you will be in asking questions.
- Try to do something extra; to show that you are pro-active and enthousiastic about the company it's good to show off a bit. Try to put an extra feature in the assignment, don't just literally do what the assignment says. It can be as simple as adding a cool animation, but could also be a whole extra feature.
- Once you are done with your assignment and you submit it to the company, it's very likely that you will have a followup call where you will be asked why you made certain choices while working on the project and to explain some code. The best way to be ready for this is to know the in and outs of your code (line by line) and follow the technical interview tips.
- If you receive a technical assignment for a real job opportunity, please be sure to contact your mentor or Education Director. While they won't do any of the code for you, they can help you make a plan, discuss the requirements and ensure that you approach the challenge the right way. It also will help keep the team informed of what you are up to which is also important!