Summary

You may still get a job offer even if you don't pass all the coding assessment test cases, as companies consider various factors such as problem-solving approach, code efficiency, and overall understanding.

Abstract

The article discusses the misconception that passing all test cases in coding assessments is necessary to proceed in the job application process. The author shares personal experiences of advancing to technical interviews and receiving job offers despite not achieving perfect scores on coding tests. Factors that can influence a company's decision include the candidate's ability to explain their thought process, the efficiency of their code in terms of time and space complexity, the presence of thorough comments, and sometimes a simple passing score that may be lower than expected. Additionally, a candidate's resume and overall performance can also play a role, suggesting that a coding assessment is not the sole determinant of a candidate's capabilities or potential fit within a company.

Opinions

Coding assessment scores are not the only criterion for advancing in the hiring process.
Thorough comments in code can provide insight into a candidate's thought process and problem-solving strategy.
Efficiency in code, particularly in terms of time and space complexity, is highly valued by companies.
A candidate's resume and overall performance, beyond just the coding test, are considered during the evaluation process.
Sometimes, candidates may progress simply because they meet the company's minimum passing criteria, which can be surprisingly lower than 100%.
Luck can also play a part in whether a candidate moves forward in the interview process.

You Don’t Need To Pass All Your Coding Assessment Test Cases To Get An Offer— Here is Why

If you have read my article Why Passing All Test Cases On Your Coding Assessment Is Not Enough then you are aware of the time when I passed all the test cases in a coding assessment and still got rejected. I have also experienced the opposite of that situation. While I was job hunting during that same recruiting season, I did coding assessments for some companies and didn’t pass all their test cases. The last thing I was expecting was an invitation to do their technical interviews because I thought candidates needed to get perfect scores on their coding assessments to advance to the next round. In hindsight, this was a flawed mindset, because companies do not only look for a perfect score, but different things. I was able to complete the technical interviews for some of these companies and even received an offer from some of them. What are some of the reasons such situations happen you ask?

Why you didn’t pass all the test cases, but you moved on to the next round

…And that was enough! Most coding assessment only ask you for your solution and that is it, but I once took a coding assessment where I was asked to explain my answer on camera after each question. I liked this format, because it gave the impression that my answer wasn’t the only thing that mattered, my understanding of the problem, my thought process, and my strategy in solving the problem all mattered. This is great, because companies do not get to understand a candidate’s thought process in their solution unless a candidate leaves thorough comments. I can say without a doubt that leaving thorough comments can be very helpful whether you pass all the test cases or not. You are literally giving the interviewer/reviewer an overview of your thought process, and that helps them to understand you more. Sometimes, you might not get all the test cases, but your comments and your explanation might help you out, it definitely helped me out.

One of the things I spoke out in my article Why Passing All The Test Cases On Your Coding Assessment is Not Enough was time and memory/space complexities. I cannot tell you the reason why I was able to advance to the next round in the interview process for the companies that invited me for interviews, but I can tell you that in each of those coding assessments, I was conscious of the time and space complexity.

Merely writing a solution that solves the problem isn’t always enough. Sometimes, companies are not looking for a solution alone, they are looking for the most efficient solution, they are looking for a fast and memory efficient code. Imagine if Google took 60 seconds to give you a result for your search and imagine how costly it would be for an e-commerce site to be slow. The time it takes for your solution to get the task done is a criterion that carries a lot of points. Maybe you were invited for an interview because whether you were conscious of this or not, your time and space complexity was in line with what they were looking and your solution, though it didn’t pass all the test cases showed them that you were a good fit.

Maybe, none of the aforementioned things are what the company is looking for. What are they looking for? Maybe they are just looking for a passing score.

Not every company has a passing score that is 100%, some companies have a cutoff point that is below 100% and sometimes even below 70%, you never know.

Your job is to simply do you very best, leave thorough comments that explain your thought process, and keep time and space in mind while writing your solution.

Maybe your code did enough! Sometimes, companies aren’t looking a specific thing. They are not just looking for the solution with the perfect time and space complexity, they are not looking at thorough comments, and they certainly do not mind a few failed test cases.

Sometimes your resume is also taken into consideration, so an average or even a poor performance on your coding assessment might not be the end of your interview journey.

I remember performing poorly on a coding assessment, not because I couldn’t write a solution for the given problems, but because I honestly didn’t know how to run my code. I wrote a working solution, my solution for the given problem was correct, and I knew this because I had previously solved similar problems on Leetcode. The problem? I was new to coding assessments and the platform that was being used, and I was expecting a Hackerrank type of setup where the function that calls the test cases is written for users, and that wasn’t the case. I left my code with comments, but I wasn’t expecting to hear from the company. I reached out the recruiter and asked if I could get another opportunity to retake the assessment even though I knew this wasn’t possible. The recruiter told me that the coding assessment wasn’t the only thing used in decided whether a candidate was a good fit or not. The recruiter also told me that the company checked not only the score, but the actual solution and the comments left in the solution. I went on interview for this company as well and also got an offer from them.

There are more reasons than one can count as to why a company will decide to move on with a candidate. Sometimes, it’s one of the reasons given or none of them at all. Sometimes, candidates just get lucky.

This situation, not passing all your cases and still advancing to the next part of the interview process does not happen a lot, but it does happen and can happen for you.

If you are looking for comfort after submitting a coding assessment where you didn’t pass all the test cases, I hope my experiences, and this piece gives you that comfort.

Remember, whether you move on or not, you are smart and more than capable. A coding assessment does not define your intelligence. If you move on, congratulations! If you don’t keep applying, keep practicing, leave thoughtful comments, and keep your time and space complexity in mind!

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