Technical Assignment Tips

Introduction

As a mentor of Hack Your Future I took some notes about topics or details some students might struggle with when they face a technical assignment for the first time.

Some tips might seem trivial, but address concerns some HYF graduates might have.

Tips

A few suggestions, in no particular order, to deliver a technical assignment:

1. First things first

   Focus on architecture and basic functionalities.

   Only then, if you have time, add new features to impress the company.

2. Read the requirements thoroughly multiple times

   Technical assignments are designed to be small, hence they often introduce assumptions and simplifications that would not be present in a real project.

   Understanding those constraints and adhere to them is important as much as writing good quality code.

   If some details are blurry, get in contact with the company or the recruiter to clarify them.

3. It needs to work out of the box

   Anybody should be able to execute npm install followed by npm start to see your project in action.

4. Write a README.md file

   It should be in the root folder and should contain a brief description, tech stack, setup instructions, and any other information you deem relevant.

5. Remember to commit .gitignore file

   Anybody cloning your repository should retain this information.

6. Test

   Remember to manually test your code before you deliver it.

   Moreover including actual tests is always a plus, even if they're not requested.

7. Be accountable for technical decisions

   You should be able to explain any technical choice you made.

8. Branding

   Use company's brand and colour palette, it's always well received.

Example

Check out this example of implementation from a Hack Your Future postgrad.

Contribute

Send a PR if you are interested in contributing to this project.