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jhoffner

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The entire point to the site is that programming challenges using STDIN/OUT is not how you write code. So yes, you can cheat - but who cares. At least you get to write real code. Not to mention the number of things that can be tested for since you are able to use real testing frameworks.

STDOUT/IN based challenges cause developers to have to program esoteric challenges that they would never see in real life, and write code that they would never use for anything other than a challenge site.

FYI Codewars has nothing to do with talent scouts. It's purpose is exactly the same as yours, except that it has content ranging from beginner to advanced. Did you build your own testing system for this? It seems to be very similar to Codewars.

I'm a co-founder of Codewars. We hired 2 full time employees and a few contractors off of Codewars based off of their profiles. Beyond that, I know of a number of users who leveraged Codewars to obtain internships and jobs, utilizing it to get up to speed on languages they hadn't been very familiar with.

This argument doesn't make sense to me. Regardless of how the design is implemented (JS, HTML) - the designer shouldn't care because they are handing off the design to the developer as a pdf, sketch, etc. file. If he/she is both a designer and a front-end developer than great - he/she knows how to code. What's the problem?

Something that I need to call out here. In talking about how to handle the lack of fixed schemas within Mongo, the OP refers to using if/else blocks to get around field name changes. This shows a severe lack of understanding of how to work with Mongo at such a fundamental level. If using Mongoid (which he is) you simply need to run `Post.all.rename(title: :post_title)` to do the schema change. This may seem like a nitpick to some people, but honestly if that concept was lost on the developer then its clear that there is little to no credibility to be had in the reporting of all the other Mongo issues.

I'm glad that the OP is growing as a developer and starting to understand the merits of SQL and why having defined schemas is important. SQL is awesome and its not going to be replaced by NoSQL (at least not fully). However please make sure that you are building the foundation of your understanding by fully grasping the technologies that you are already using.

Show HN: Codewars 12 years ago

"Achieve mastery through challenge" is the tagline. The idea here is to push yourself to solve problems you may have not attempted before, and to learn from others by seeing how they solved theirs. I've have personally learned a lot from seeing how other people solve problems, I even learned a lot from creative uses of solving "Hello World" which was a bit of a surprise.

In short: Codecademy is meant for those who want to learn programming. Codewars is for existing programmers who want to get better at programming.

I love how your comment about how noisey and pointless it is to mention the NSA on this post caused the entire comments section to become noise. I can't even find a non-NSA relevant post in this list.

Wow! We had no idea someone would be posting about us on HN today. We were not prepared. The site has been scaled up and it should working now.

UPDATE:

I was a bit hasty with my original comment. There was a regression bug that was still causing the landing page to be broken. A fix has been deployed and things should be working now.

The extra work that comes with consulting is well worth it. You earn more, are able to expense much more and at the end of the day you feel like you are running your own business (because you are). Understanding the basics of payroll, bookkeeping, client management, etc helps you grow as a professional. It may not be for everyone but its worth doing for at least a few years.