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Failed Bloomberg online C++ test. I can't believe it.

OKCWBY

Joined
1/7/11
Messages
4
Points
11
Hi all,

I applied the financial software developer position at bloomberg online. And a few days later a 'no-reply' email asked me to take an online test. Today I received another 'no-reply' email telling me that I failed the C++ test. I cannot believe it. So is there anything I can do instead of just walking away?

The reason I donot believe it is that I took the test before, at the same website as requested by another company. My score was above 97%. This time about 50% of the problems are the same and I actually even improved after last test. I think I only got 1 or 2 wrong out of about 30-40 problems. With such high score I assume I had no problem passing the test. But unfortunately it is a failure. Since I don't have an agent, so I don't know who I can contact with. I tried to call BB, but they just telling me that 'unfortunately you failed, you are welcome to apply next year'. They are not going to tell me my score of the test. But I really want to find it out, and hopefully the reason why they fail me if I actually passed the test.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

THX.
 
What kinds/categories of questions did you get?

And more importantly - do you have hands-on experience with C++, have you kicked the tires?
 
OKCWBY said:
Hi all,

I applied the financial software developer position at bloomberg online. And a few days later a 'no-reply' email asked me to take an online test. Today I received another 'no-reply' email telling me that I failed the C++ test. I cannot believe it. So is there anything I can do instead of just walking away?

The reason I donot believe it is that I took the test before, at the same website as requested by another company. My score was above 97%. This time about 50% of the problems are the same and I actually even improved after last test. I think I only got 1 or 2 wrong out of about 30-40 problems. With such high score I assume I had no problem passing the test. But unfortunately it is a failure. Since I don't have an agent, so I don't know who I can contact with. I tried to call BB, but they just telling me that 'unfortunately you failed, you are welcome to apply next year'. They are not going to tell me my score of the test. But I really want to find it out, and hopefully the reason why they fail me if I actually passed the test.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

THX.
Click to expand...
Bloomberg recruiters want "master" level pass, meaning you need to score >= 4.
 
They said you failed the test...which means you failed the test. It's not that 97% isn't good enough, it's that enough other people scored higher than you.

You're assuming the 'pass' level is something they set beforehand, which probably not the case, which is why they won't tell you your score as well. They get the stats on the scores, and if they want to review X resumes or interview X, they set pass/fail based on their intake.
 
I have 5+ years C++ experience. I was very confident that at least they would interview me after the test.
 
I am no assuming the passing score was set beforehand. All I am saying is, if I only got 1 or 2 wrong in about 30-40 problems in the test. No way this is a failure. I just don't believe there are enough people got 100% correct in those questions. Maybe I am terribly wrong here.

Last time I took the test, my score is higher than 97% of the people who took the test, as told by the HR. They told me that was a really excellent score. But unfortunately after 3 rounds of interview, they never got back to me.

I am still not convinced that I would fail this test.

joel_b said:
They said you failed the test...which means you failed the test. It's not that 97% isn't good enough, it's that enough other people scored higher than you.

You're assuming the 'pass' level is something they set beforehand, which probably not the case, which is why they won't tell you your score as well. They get the stats on the scores, and if they want to review X resumes or interview X, they set pass/fail based on their intake.
Click to expand...
 
Some C++ questions (which sometimes resemble C) have to do with syntax that good developers would never - and should never - use in the first place. Second, the compiler will catch these errors in 0.0001 seconds.

If you don't know C++ well enough you will certainly not pass. It's just that good developers might not pass *precisely* because they avoid arcane syntax.

It is interesting to know if the exam setters have many questions on STL and STL algorithms, for example. Or even templates 101.
 
Brainbench is the most brain damaged C++ test ever. @OP: consider yourself lucky that you get rejected, you certainly would not want to work for morons using something that stupid to select among candidates.
 
OKCWBY said:
I just don't believe there are enough people got 100% correct in those questions. Maybe I am terribly wrong here.
Click to expand...

I think there's a ton of people applying for programming jobs at bloomberg, and in general lots of peopole looking for jobs. I would suspect that yes, enough people scored higher than you.

I'm not sure what other explanation you're looking for (the frowned upon your puzzle hobby?); honestly if you know you got some wrong, then you need to ask yourself why you aren't getting 100%, instead of thinking the recruiters are wrong and that you passed according to your own assessment. It's a tight job market, and your competitors are nailing these stupid tests, and getting the interviews.

In the same way people prep for the GRE to score 800 on the quant (even though it's not indicative of your real skill or your success potential), it's the barrier to entry and you have to make it over the hurdle. To some people, 97% isn't good enough.
 
joel_b said:
I think there's a ton of people applying for programming jobs at bloomberg, and in general lots of peopole looking for jobs. I would suspect that yes, enough people scored higher than you.
Click to expand...
bloomberg is the only company hiring now in nyc. there may be tons people scored higher than you.
 
cgorac said:
Brainbench is the most brain damaged C++ test ever. @OP: consider yourself lucky that you get rejected, you certainly would not want to work for morons using something that stupid to select among candidates.
Click to expand...
Brainbench is not the worst testing company. I've seen others that are much much worse (at least Brainbench does not have syntax errors in the questions :)). Also, there is a line between recruiters who are not technical, but still want to filter out people for in-person interviews and the actual hiring managers/.
 
These things represent the stupidity of turbocapitalism at its best. On the other hand, the rat race has always been horrible and, I'm afraid, most of us are cannon fodder. My humble suggestion to OP is to move on and try elsewhere.
 
kirylm said:
Brainbench is not the worst testing company. I've seen others that are much much worse (at least Brainbench does not have syntax errors in the questions :)). Also, there is a line between recruiters who are not technical, but still want to filter out people for in-person interviews and the actual hiring managers/.
Click to expand...

So this should be some sort of excuse for this sort of stupid "tests"? If recruiters are not technical, then why they bother interviewing/selecting technical people?

I was not aware there exist other scams alike to Brainbench... And you're right that Brainbench questions are at least syntactically correct - so by far the best way to answer to these (most of them are of type "what is the output of following program" and then some obscure piece of code that no sane programmer would ever have to write follows) is just to compile and run, and check the output.
 
97% means you made a bug somewhere in your program. Unexceptable, Bloomberg terminals crashing everywhere. Didn't you thoroughly read and understand all of Stroustrop's 1000+ page how-to C++ book? Don't worry if you didn't, doesn't mean you're stupid, more likely means you have a life. Seriously, to compete for a Bloomberg position with all the other people out there that want to say "I program for Bloomberg" you really need to give up on the idea of a social life (at least until you get the job).
 
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