Extract. Transform. Read.

A newsletter from Pipeline​

Hi past, present or future data professional!

If you’re like me, in school you were always envious of your classmates that may not have applied themselves academically but were “good test takers.” Fortunately (for them at least), these folks would likely do well on what is quietly becoming the SAT of programming the GCA, or General Coding Assessment.

Now, the General Coding Assessment isn’t any kind of board certifying test like the Bar (RIP to my law school grad friends taking this in late July) and isn’t universally offered like college entrance exams. It is, however, becoming increasingly accepted and expected by companies using the coding test vendor, Code Signal.

Think of Code Signal as a barrage of LeetCode/HackerRank questions–but on steroids. Instead of having the benefit of coding along with an interviewer/senior engineer, the candidate has the pleasure of sitting for a virtually proctored exam. Depending on your interview process’ constraints this may also include a lockdown of your browser; so no looking up that Python method you’re always forgetting.

Like the SAT, the GCA assigns a composite score out of 600, typically the aggregate of 1-5 questions to be completed in just over an hour. Companies are increasingly using this score as an additional screener to determine if candidates demonstrate the logical thought processes necessary to thrive in entry-level and mid-level roles. Some companies are even accepting past test results within a certain time frame, i.e. 6-12 months.

If this sounds intimidating, the good news is that there are a lot of resources available to help you understand, approach and pass tests like this. While you could do the industry-standard LeetCode, I personally prefer StrataScratch (not a sponsor), as it has more problem sets related to data analysis, including a ton of SQL practice and dedicated interview prep.

For the GCA specifically, I recommend reviewing and trying the problems featured in this GitHub repo: https://github.com/Leader-board/OA-and-Interviews/blob/main/Online%20Assessments.md#codesignal.

And if you take and fail the test, don’t be too hard on yourself. This isn’t a universal test that will decide your future as a developer. At least not yet.

Thanks for ingesting,

-Zach Quinn