100% is not enough

im_done.md

Acing a recruitment task? Get ready to be rejected!

I'm done, guys. In April, I sent an application for a Fullstack Python Developer internship at Samsung R&D.
After (allegedly) reviewing my CV, they decided to invite me to a test assessing my technical skills:

Great! I indeed got the e-mail with the invitation link soon after:

So I managed to find some time and solved the test the same day, fully focusing for ~90 minutes. Here are the results I got: Please note that correctness was the only and key factor in the assessment. It was explicitly stated in the test description that nobody was going to review my code. I cannot provide a screen as it's not available to me already, since I completed the assessment.

Happy that I did it, I waited the next 18 days to get hit with this:

Seriously, Samsung? 100% being "not sufficient"?

Can you believe I had to write this e-mail?

-- bswck

It's probably just an automatic email which is sent to people who didn't make a cut.

Why you didn't make a cut...
There could be many reasons.

Maybe they had like 5 slots and there were 6 people with 100%.

Some manager changed their mind and said that they don't need an intern.

Or maybe they just don't want to bother with people from other countries?
Why hire intern from other country if you can just get one from here(even if their score is less than yours)?
(Unless I am ignorant, and they have office in Poland).

Either way, bit tech is harsh.
Good luck, the times are tough. :(

Whatever their reason (if they indeed have one), this process and response from Samsung is incredibly rude and disrespectful of your time. Don't make people do 1h30 of tests if you know you won't hire them because they're not in the right country, or don't have enough experience, or are too young / too old for your taste, or whatever.

You'll do better next time.

Take the perspective of the employer. Think about how the test and scoring is implemented and how different candidates might respond. Keep in mind 'correctness test cases' are just one part evaluating your responses. Put that "100%" into context. It's "100% test case correctness" -- a box that consists of probably less than half of everything that is being evaluated. You may pass all test cases, but that's almost certainly not the whole picture here.

It could also just be truly bad process at Samsung, which is just as likely. Maybe they sent you the skills assessment before even actually reading your CV. Maybe you're overqualified for an intern position.

They should do a better job of explaining their process and decision and probably shouldn't even show a results screen like this.

Good luck.

'correctness test cases' are just one part evaluating your responses.

Not really. In the description of the test it was stated that only correctness is taken into account. The code wasn't reviewed by anyone manually.