I've been doing competitive programming for a while now and I think I have a good grasp of problem difficulty. Recently, a friend introduced me to HackerRank, and I noticed that many medium-level challenges have a success rate of over 95%. This seems strange to me—are all these people really that skilled at programming? And how do so many individuals manage to solve what appear to be difficult problems, especially under the pressure of an interview?
5 Answers
HackerRank scores might not really measure true software engineering skills. I’ve encountered plenty of folks acing HackerRank or LeetCode but they struggle when it comes to actual software development.
There are no real time limits on those challenges—people can look things up or use tools like AI to help. Plus, I wouldn't say the medium problems are really that hard.
Honestly, no one outside the HackerRank community cares about those success rates, especially recruiters. So don’t sweat it too much!
HackerRank is more like a learning tool than a strict measure of what you're capable of. It’s about exploration, not marking your skills.
It's all about selection bias. A lot of people who tackle those challenges get skilled at them just through practice. They might not be great at real-world development, but they're definitely good at cracking HackerRank problems.
True! But don't interview questions often have similar patterns?