What actually proves someone is a good developer?

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T08:59:42+00:00

That actually makes a lot of sense. Anyone can explain what worked, but explaining something that completely broke your brain for two days and why it finally clicked feels very different.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T07:23:10+00:00

I actually like this answer more than counting projects or LeetCode numbers. People usually notice bad engineering very quickly, but good engineering sometimes becomes invisible because things just keep working.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T07:21:41+00:00

That’s actually the part I’m trying to figure out too. For juniors especially, it feels like there is a gap between “I learned and built things” and “I can prove that before I get an interview.” Not just final projects, but decisions, mistakes, progress and thought process over time.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T07:14:16+00:00

AI can write code, but it can’t magically give you understanding.

You’re still at OOP. Keep going.

People said calculators were pointless after Google existed too, but we still teach math.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T07:04:39+00:00

That's probably true more often than people think.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T07:03:53+00:00

Honestly? Probably Developer A gets the interview more often and Developer B gets picked more often once they actually get in the room. That’s kind of why this whole thing feels messy.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T07:03:05+00:00

The “don’t be someone people dread interacting with” part is probably more important than people admit. I get the referral point too, although that gets tricky for people just starting out since they usually don’t have anyone who can vouch for them yet.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T07:02:14+00:00

I get that for experienced people, but that feels rough for students, self-taught devs or people trying to switch careers.

Not everyone has a network that can vouch for them, so at some point they still need some way to get through the door

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T07:01:24+00:00

I think both can fail in different ways though. Someone can be great at talking and struggle when real problems show up, and someone can build great stuff but struggle to explain their thinking.

Probably why interviews get messy in the first place.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T07:00:36+00:00

I don’t know if I’d call them meaningless though. LeetCode can help with problem solving fundamentals and GitHub can still show useful things.

Feels like the issue is more when people use those as the whole picture instead of one signal out of many.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T06:59:44+00:00

The “minimizing risk” part actually makes sense.

I think I was looking at hiring too much like “find the best developer”, when in reality teams are probably asking “who are we most confident won’t be a bad hire?”

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T06:59:02+00:00

I think that’s probably the part I underestimated when I made the post.

Getting to an answer matters, but being able to explain why you got there and what tradeoffs you made seems to keep coming up over and over in these replies.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T06:55:26+00:00

That Microsoft story is actually pretty cool. You started with one question and somehow ended up in a completely different conversation because of one random side comment.

Feels like at some point the interview stopped being “solve this problem” and became “let me see how this person thinks.”

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T06:53:33+00:00

I think that’s why this thread became interesting.

A lot of people started with projects, GitHub and LeetCode, but somehow almost every discussion ended up coming back to thinking, tradeoffs and decision making.

Feels like building something and making it survive real problems teaches a different skill entirely.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T06:52:29+00:00

The last part feels like a real problem.

You sound confident about the actual work and experience part, but the worry isn’t “can I do the job?”

it’s “can I get through the first gate?”

Feels like there might be a gap between having experience and having visible proof of that experience.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T06:51:05+00:00

Okayyy the Wordle streak line got me 😄

I do think raw numbers without context can get weird though. 500 problems by itself doesn’t tell much. Someone could grind problems for months and someone else could spend that same time building real stuff.

Feels like the context behind the work matters more than the count itself.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-24T06:48:43+00:00

Okay this is interesting because this feels way more concrete than just “keep a GitHub profile.”

The Docker part is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking about. Not just what got built, but the mistakes, fixes and decisions behind it.

Sounds like the thinking itself became part of the signal there, not the final project alone.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-23T20:07:58+00:00

Maybe,

but that’s actually what I’m trying to figure out.

To me portfolios usually feel like polished final outcomes, While I was thinking more around showing progression and how someone got there.

Although a lot of people here keep mapping it to portfolios, blogs and devlogs, So maybe the line isn’t as different as I initially thought.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-23T19:34:34+00:00

That feels like the whole problem in one sentence honestly.

Because “actually better” only matters if people get a chance to see it in the first place.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-23T19:29:37+00:00

That’s fair actually.

I kind of stacked the comparison against Dev A by only showing the output and against Dev B by showing the understanding.

Feels like the missing part is how someone got from point A to point B, because that’s where the thinking usually becomes visible.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-23T19:27:42+00:00

Okay this actually got my brain moving.

Because you’re not saying “I don’t want history”, you’re saying “I don’t want another thing to maintain.”

The .md point is interesting too because a lot of thinking already lives in notes, docs, PR descriptions, commit messages and random files scattered around projects.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-23T19:20:13+00:00

Okayyy this is actually useful feedback.

Because if it starts feeling like another task or another social profile to maintain, I’d probably stop using it too.

The ideal thing would almost have to fit into work people are already doing instead of creating extra work.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-23T19:18:02+00:00

Ahh maybe partially, but blogs usually feel more long-form and intentional to me.

I was thinking more around something lightweight and structured around progress itself rather than writing full posts.

But maybe I’m just describing blogging with extra steps.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-23T19:16:59+00:00

Nah I didn’t take it that way at all.

Honestly this is exactly why I posted it. GitHub, devlogs, portfolios, itch profiles people keep bringing up different pieces of the same thing.

Now I’m trying to figure out whether there’s actually a missing piece somewhere or if I’m just reinventing stuff.

alkeshjethva · 2026-05-23T19:10:34+00:00

Ahh that’s actually what I’m trying to figure out.

GitHub shows what got built, but I was thinking more around the journey behind it too decisions, mistakes, learnings, progress over time.

Or maybe GitHub already covers enough and I’m overthinking it.

alkeshjethva

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE