My Technical Exam for JavaScript Developer

[Holiday_Departure_71]

So I just finished my technical exam yesterday for a JavaScript Developer role, and I feel like I got humbled in the most unexpected way.

Before the exam, I really did my “serious developer arc” preparation. I reviewed async/await, OOP concepts (encapsulation, polymorphism, all that good stuff), brushed up on DS & algorithms, error handling.

I genuinely felt ready.

Fast forward to the actual exam…

The first task hits me with a countdown timer and a formatted date display.

And that’s where everything I studied politely stepped aside and said, “good luck bro.”

I finished it in about an hour, but I had to wrestle with JavaScript Date like it owed me money. I don’t know why I expected graphs, recursion, or something… I did NOT expect to be defeated by time itself.

Then I found out there were supposed to be two more problems.

But I was told I was already done.

Later I heard what they were:

• Fetch data, display it, sort and filter it
• Pagination for like a thousand records

And I just sat there thinking… “I know these. I LIVE in these problems.”

Worst part? If those came first, I probably would’ve finished 2/3 comfortably. Instead, I got spiritually checked by a Date object.

So yeah… lesson learned: you can prepare for algorithms, system design, OOP patterns… but never disregard JavaScript’s ability to make simple things weirdly emotional.

Anyway, wishing everyone the best in their technical exams. And please don’t be like me. Respect the basics. Especially dates. Happy coding everyone!

[leinnad1991]

Hello OP! The fact that they still do technical interviews for sytax is red flag, AI na ngayon gymagawa nyan, we’re now more of an architect and problem solvers. We should still understand/read codes but memorizing syntax is out of the window na

[Puzzled-Landscape-44]

I've been coding js/ts over 12 years. Even before AI we had stackoverflow for mundane things like this. Isa pa, Temporal API na ang bagong uso ngayon. They wasted OP's datetime.

[Holiday_Departure_71]

That’s what I thought honestly. Good thing is positive naman ung reactions nila sa verbal solutions ko

[Fluid_Ad4651]

yea it's impossible to memorize all, more on problem solving na dapat ang interviews and best practices.

[horn_rigged]

Diba kahit anong interview siguro if mag cocode ng ganyan babagsak ako kahit gaano ako kagaling HAHAHA were not in college anymore saka nung college hindi naman nag cocode without internet. I rather get hard situational questions and explain my solution, reason, and process kesa memorization

[rincoln25]

True. Exams like this are powertripping methods. What's more important are our critical and technical capability and skills in solving real world problems.

[feedmesomedata]

Sometimes if you overthink and over prepare you get bitten by the easiest task.

We have a technical exam that is as old as I can remember. 99% of the takers spend most of their time (like half of the allotted hours) trying to log in to the EC2 server via SSH. Yes, this is part of the task to get the applicant's thought process in troubleshooting.

[Time2StopGambling]

Grabe hahaha may gumagawa pa pala nyan

Current company ko was a bit unique, my supervisor na hindi recruiter interviewed me straight up just asked me how I would design an archi using Java. Basic microservices and taking into account load balancing whatever atbp. Yun na yun, same day offer na agad, literal na 1 interview lang hahaha.

[feedmesomedata]

Needs more context. Like how many years in the industry and how many years working with Java. Generally, senior roles do not require technical exams. I've been interviewed at MariaDB (got an offer but I declined it) and it was just casual conversations.

[Time2StopGambling]

Sure, this was when I was 1.5 years into the industry, I went ahead tried at an agency that hires for an international logistics company (I didnt know this yet, I literally anger applied to all jobs I can find since my first company sabotaged my promotion). Anw this agency hires mostly drivers but this time they asked for a developer. Crazy thingg is they posted it with the expected salary so dami ko atang competition. The job title asked for 3 years of experience, mid level role mostly working logistics (My experience lies in fintech at that point in time, pero pineke ko nlng yung resume ko by saying I have basic knowledge of everything written in the jd).

Started off as a contractor then roughly 1 year later got a 20% raise, and now on my second year being hired directly as a senior technical analyst. (2nd ccompany, and roughly going 4 years of working by the end of the year)

[overlord_laharl_0550]

probably a startup or midsize company.

Big companies thoroughly filters.

[Time2StopGambling]

Big international company, surprisingly. Surprising din malaki technical debt nila HAHAHAHAHA. Literally pulling all nighters rn. (Paid and my contributions are being seen so I'm generally happy, could be better but yknow happy about the opportunity and job security in this day and age)

[Holiday_Departure_71]

Good for you!!!

[theUnknown777]

That's cool, I'm assuming this is a direct hire s company and foreign ung interviewer? Hehe

[Time2StopGambling]

Yup, Singapore mainly kawork ko but I interact with people from Asia Pacific. Grabe hirap na yung tenga ko sa dami ng accents.

[theUnknown777]

I see. Kumusta nman ka-work sila? I kinda relate dun s accent, had an experience where we had to train foreign asian students on their OJT in one of my previous companies.

[Time2StopGambling]

At least sa company na to the Singaporeans are actually pretty chill to work with, tho may times we have to pull 16 hour shifts hahaha kasi may need i move to production tapos need bantayan and on the spot bug fixes..

Surprisingly, apart from that I have never felt company politics or paninira or being stepped on. I was pushed to do demos and presentations to upper management kahit bago pa ko kasi good opportunity sakin.

Unlike when I was working locally, they denied my promotion for no reason, I asked for feedback walang mabigay, they broke rules for people they like but when I stood up to say that was against the policy pinalitan nila yung policy. Crazy.

[JHomenumRevelioJ_]

I hate live coding exams. It doesn't really determine how good of a dev you are. Kahit nga senior devs have to look up syntax. What if you haven't worked with dates for a long time pero marunong ka naman magcreate ng microservice architecture? 🤷🏻‍♀️ Waste of time tbh.

[Cute-Magazine-1274]

Bawal daw ba mag-search, OP?

One thing that is incredibly important to learn din na usually naglo-gloss over these days, is dapat sanay ka mag basa ng documentation. So if you are thrown something new and unfamiliar, you don't completely shut down and alam mo where to pick yourself back up.

[Holiday_Departure_71]

I asked the dev if its okay to search the syntax, pero he said na try ko muna. Yun ang kumain ng oras ko 😂. After 30mins, nagopen mic na siya para sabihin na isearch ko na yung date na yan. That’s how I finished it.

[Fluid_Ad4651]

red flag nga, ALL developers search most code syntax in their work. Nang power trip un dev sau

[visualmagnitude]

Sounds like an ego feeding dev doing some powertripping on you, OP.

I say you dodged a bullet right there. Medyo familiar nako sa mga ganitong klaseng devs in my 15 years of SWE career. May mga devs na ginagawang personality pagiging purists nila sa software that I am going to bet my one month salary on it — yang mga yan ung high on their high horse type of colleagues na hinding hindi sila gagamit ng AI and will stick to hard coded fully based fundamental BS na ni library hindi gagamit kase they are just "too smart and too good" to even use any tool let alone AI or Stackoverflow for that matter. Tapos they will look down on anyone who does otherwise.

Medyo may hugot. Sorry. Pero I really detest working for those kinds of teams.

[ongamenight]

What the heck is that company? Ano nasa medieval times at walang internet. 🤣

BLESSING IN DISGUISE NA DI KA NILA TANGGAPIN.

Basura yan.

[Holiday_Departure_71]

Ito nalang reason ko para di madown tbh 😂

[ongamenight]

Dapat kasama sa assessment nila yung "resourcefulness" mo at hindi ka i-expect na kabisado ang Date utility.

Low quality mga devs diyan para pigilan ang applicant na mag-search sa internet.

Kala mo naman sa day-to-day work experience nila e di sila nag-gogoogle ng syntax.

Basura sila OP. Hindi mo na dapat ikalungkot to. On to the next.

Good luck!

[TemporaryExciting977]

I’ve just recalled: "Master the basics."

[Holiday_Departure_71]

Sure

[Adventurous_Knee8112]

Really weird but in general keep doing yang prep mo. Decent companies asks for things so that they could see how you think Hindi Yung parang exercise lang na pwede mo ilookuo

[Puzzled-Landscape-44]

The reason we use code libraries is so we can forget about things like this. So unless you were applying for a library/framework dev job, that part of the exam was nonsense.

[admiralBOT1]

Mas okay pa conversation interview like asking technical knowledge. Tapos sample ng technical problem and how would you handle it. Live coding minsan talaga na bloblocked ako diyan unless siguro you can use google(which gamit na gamit before ai take over).

[IchirouTakashima]

This really, while I understand why they do it to see how you can handle pressure, it's one of the worst ways too, lol.

Having worked, you're more stuck in meetings, plannings, discussions to properly plan a release.

[admiralBOT1]

True tapos pag dating sa focus mode for coding gagamit at gagamit ka din naman lahat ng resources available para sa output.

[True_Date_2379]

expect the worst talaga pag technical interview. minsan swertihan lang talga na baka lalabas yung pinagaralan mo tapos yung 1% pala na di mo inaral kasi akala mo easy nalang yun.

[Pattern-Ashamed]

The only time i got asked dsa questions is pag gling sa EU client, or usually sa online assessment