Interview help!

#career #machinelearning #python

Hi! I'm interviewing for a frontend developer position, they sent me a coding challenge that that I need to prepare for that is titled "data-science-coding-interview" - the reqs are to build a baseline machine learning model using Python, numpy and scikit-learn. I asked if this was the correct challenge and they said yes...Is this normal for a frontend role?

HELP

Top comments (4)

Muhammad Talha Akbar • Jul 23 '21

Send an email back confidently telling them there's definitely a mistake and how the trial task has no relevance to your role. If they don't reply or correct their mistake, I personally wouldn't bother pursuing the role at that company.

Travis Fantina • Jul 23 '21 • Edited

Eh... Weird to be sure. It seems like they are either playing one of two games:

Throw a challenge out of left field to see how candidates handle it
The role they are trying to fill is actually mismatched by the position

If number one is the case then, personally, I wouldn't peruse it. You don't want to start a relationship with an employer who is going to play mind games with you. Your time would be better spent applying for jobs that you are both qualified for and will respect you for your abilities. However, if you want to still give it your best, I would say document your code well and explain you reasoning be as creative as possible and work to your strengths. So instead of maybe building a machine learning model in python you could create a front end to interface with an external machine learning API. It sidesteps the actual problem but it also says "hey, I'm a great front end developer and I made this impressive UI".

If number two is the issue: this can happen in organizations where there is a disconnect between HR and the development teams maybe HR is using a coding challenge they were sent for the wrong position. Or maybe the hiring manager does not understand the roll they either need or the one you are applying for.

In either case I would be careful because it seems like the issue is on their end rather than with your abilities. It seems like they are setting you up to fail/waste a bunch of time.