The coding exercise is one of the stages in our interview process.
It is a 45-60 minute exercise where you and an engineer work as a pair writing code to solve a problem.
Similar to when you pair with a colleague, there will be a driver and a navigator. The driver will be the one at the keyboard, whilst the navigator will be making suggestions and asking questions.
You will typically play the role of driver and the engineer will be the navigator
This project uses npm, start by installing dependencies
npm iThe repository has the code for both Javascript - js and Typescript - ts for the candidate to choose whichever is good with them.
Connect-4 is a grid-based game, where players take it in turns to add tokens. Players take turns to drop a token on a column until one of the players has four consecutive tokens and wins or the board is full. The winner is whoever manages to line up 4 pieces, in any direction (horizontal, vertical, diagonal) first.
An online version can be found here.
Here is an example of the game:
The aim is to develop an interactive version of the game which the candidate and interviewer can play together.
A simple, text-based, representation of the grid is encouraged to
start with. For example, you might use . (or ⚫️) for empty slots, and x (or 🔴)
and o (or 🔵) for pieces of the two players. Players can input their turns
via the REPL.
The focus of the exercise is to create the game logic, not the user interface. Therefore, the interface can be a simple console logs (hard-coded or not)
A minimal version of the game should support:
- a 6 (rows) x 7 (columns) grid
- players play pieces sequentially
- the game identifies winning turns and ends at that point
- Javascript:
npm run co4-js - Typescript:
npm run co4-ts