I wish I'd thought of this for my job listings, it's a fun couple minutes. Well done, gentlemen.
So many of these puzzle challenges (e.g. Google Aptitude Test circa 2004, Facebook Programming Puzzles, etc) seem like they would discourage people who already have a great full time job, or actively maintain an open source project, etc... who are exactly the people you want. This one seems to strike a great balance between time invested and skills/thought process tested.
On the other hand, those tests are great for new grads who have ability but not experience and want to stand out in the piles of resumes that these companies receive every day.
Really? The skills tested here seem utterly trivial... It was fun for a few minutes, but nowhere near challenging enough to make me sit up and take notice (of course, YMMV)
It is pretty trivial... that was my point. If it weren't trivial, then people would just skip it and move on. But it's cute and still sufficiently non-trivial to be a helpful filter for the person who has to sort through the tide of resumes.
So many of these puzzle challenges (e.g. Google Aptitude Test circa 2004, Facebook Programming Puzzles, etc) seem like they would discourage people who already have a great full time job, or actively maintain an open source project, etc... who are exactly the people you want. This one seems to strike a great balance between time invested and skills/thought process tested.