FAQ

FAQ

What is Diffy?

Diffy is mainly a tool for improving tech interviews. It consists of a library of real-world code challenges, each with practical issues waiting to be discovered. Candidates review these challenges and provide comments, which are then used to generate personalized discussion guides for follow-up interviews. This process helps gauge the candidate’s technical knowledge and problem-solving abilities, making the interview process more insightful and efficient.

How does Diffy work?

Diffy works by presenting candidates with real-world code challenges, known as Diffs. These Diffs are pull requests that simulate coding problems and can be imported from GitHub or created from scratch. Candidates review the Diffs and provide comments, just as they would in a real code review. Based on these comments, Diffy generates personalized discussion guides for follow-up interviews, ensuring a focused and relevant interview process.

What are Diffs?

Diffs are real-world code challenges presented to candidates during the interview process. They are essentially “fake mini pull requests”. These challenges are designed to simulate coding problems that candidates might encounter in a real work environment. Diffs can be imported from GitHub or created from scratch to suit specific skill sets and levels. Candidates review the Diffs and provide comments, which are then used to generate personalized discussion guides for follow-up interviews.

Do I need to write all the Diffs myself?

No, you don’t need to write all the Diffs yourself. Diffy allows you to import Diffs from GitHub, which means you can re-use real pull requests as code challenges. This feature saves time and effort, as you can leverage existing code to create meaningful challenges for candidates. However, if you prefer to create Diffs from scratch, you can do so using Diffy’s platform.

What is the difference between a Diff and a Challenge?

A Diff is a “fake mini pull request”, and it can include internal comments that point out tricky parts of the code. Typically, you’d keep a Diff to a certain technology, for instance a Diff about React (e.g. changing something in a frontend application written in React), and another one about Express (e.g. changing something in a backend application written in Express).

A Challenge is a set of Diffs that you assign to a candidate. For example, you might assign a React Diff and an Express Diff to a candidate applying for a Full Stack Developer position. The candidate reviews the Diffs and provides comments, which are then used to generate personalized discussion guides for follow-up interviews.

How does the candidate review the Diffs?

The candidate, in the process of applying for a position, gets send a link to their personal challenge. They see the code (like they would on Github) and have to give feedback on the code. They can comment on the code, ask questions, and point out issues. They don’t see any internal comments yet, only the code. Their feedback is then used to generate personalized discussion guides for follow-up interviews. Once they have submitted their feedback to their challenge (e.g. one or more Diffs), you can review their comments and schedule an interview with them.

What happens after the candidate reviews the Diffs?

Once the candidate submits their comments, you can create an interview. For each interview, you’d create topics. These combine the candidate’s comments and your previous internal comments. By comparing the two, you can see if the candidate found all relevant issues in the code, which they missed and what other comments they have. This way, you can prepare for the interview and ask the candidate about the issues they missed or didn’t understand.

How does the interview process work?

Finally, after you created the topics for the interview and you have invited the candidate, Diffy let’s you step through the code again, together this time. You (the interviewer) will see the code, their comments and any internal comments on the code. The candidate will only see their comments and the code. By carefully discussing code issues (the ones they found and the ones they missed), you can get a good understanding of the candidate’s technical knowledge and problem-solving abilities. Also, on how they wrote their comments, you can get a good understanding of their communication skills.

What happens after the interview process?

Currently, Diffy ends with the interview, but we are working on a feature that will allow you to rate the candidate and give them feedback. This way, you can keep track of the candidates you interviewed and give them feedback on their performance. This will help you to make a decision on who to hire and who not to hire.