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I am looking for a job. One of the companies that I interviewed with gave me a coding challenge. The company did not reply after I sent my solution. Can I upload my solution to the coding challenge on Github, to showcase my skills to other employers?

It was a good question, and I wish to showcase my code and approach (for which I invested a lot of time). Is it ethical or a good practice to do it?

Masked Man
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OSK
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    Hello, welcome to the workplace. I updated your question a bit, to make the title more general (and not restricted to Github). Let me know if I changed your intention too much, I will revert it (or you can go to the edit history and do it yourself). – Masked Man Mar 28 '17 at 17:08
  • @MaskedMan Thank you. There is no dilution in intention at all. – OSK Mar 28 '17 at 17:10
  • @JoeStrazzere I did not think of attributing the source. I do not see the need for that. But should I? – OSK Mar 28 '17 at 17:24
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    @JoeStrazzere now that you mention it, it makes sense. – OSK Mar 28 '17 at 17:45
  • If they didn't reply back you might not want to showcase that particular code, anyways.. Also, keep in mind that interview questions are very simplified to fit within time pressures, so I would expect any decent programmer to be able to solve them at their leisure - it's far more impressive to have a good tutorial of the solving process, or to create an actually useful project. You might find this question helpful too. – user812786 Mar 28 '17 at 19:02

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Unless you signed something specifically stating you cannot, then go for it. Upload your solution to GitHub and show off your work.

Anything you can do to make yourself standout to an employer, especially demonstrating code you actually wrote, the better. Most employers will consider it a plus.

Note: There may be location specific laws that apply.

Neo
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You can upload your solution, but uploading the task itself is something else. Creating a good task is hard and publishing the task will decrease its future value. You expect the employee to handle the information they received from you in private so I think they should be allowed to expect the same from your side. But as you didn't mention the country, so I can only say that I would not publish the task.

FooTheBar
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As an employer, I would not want you to do this. If I wanted the questions posted on a website, I'd do it myself and refer everyone to it. I also wouldn't post answers from each candidate online, nor would I want candidates to post their own answers online. Being able to read answers from other candidates before providing your own answer would create an unfair advantage. It wouldn't demonstrate whether or not you knew the answer to begin with, and it would limit your ability to show unique insight into the problem or solution.

I am all for you creating a portfolio that demonstrates your skills and abilities. If the work in your portfolio was inspired by my interview questions, that's great, but please generalize so we can both achieve what we are trying to accomplish. Also, since your solution didn't get you the job, you might want to collect feedback from others and update it before posting it; otherwise you could just as easily be demonstrating why not to hire you.

Lazor
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    +1 for "since your solution didn't get you the job, you might want to collect feedback from others and update it before posting it; otherwise you could just as easily be demonstrating why not to hire you." http://codereview.stackexchange.com/ is a great resource for this – Chris G Mar 28 '17 at 19:13
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No different than you solving a coding puzzle on Code Golf or similar sites. As long as it doesn't reference a particular company's methods or data, then it shouldn't be at all a problem. Be sure to make the variables and information as general as possible and then upload away.

SliderBlackrose
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  • "As long as it doesn't reference a particular company's methods" It is the very method of this company to select employees... – FooTheBar Mar 29 '17 at 08:59
  • Not what I meant. Specifically: Does not use data, functions, methodologies used in coding or other procedures from day-to-day functions. IE: Things like database structure or table naming or schemas. – SliderBlackrose Mar 29 '17 at 20:10