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Indian Founder Ditches Old-School Tech Interview
Breaking free from traditional recruitment methods, Indian startup founder Kartikey Singh offered up an unusual strategy to hire his inaugural developer, and the outcome has been astounding.
Instead of grilling candidates with endless DSA questions or technical puzzles, he opted for a practical, hands-on test.
On X, he explained,“Just hired my first developer without asking a single DSA question. No formal interview, no ‘reverse this binary tree’ nonsense. Just said: ‘Here’s 7 days, paid probation. Build this real client feature. If it’s good, you’re hired. If not, no hard feelings.’'
How this approach worked?
Eight months into the operation, this approach seems to have worked out well for Kartikey.
The developer not only remained with the company but became instrumental in bringing in $60,000 in revenue.
Karitkey Singh condensed the lesson in just a few words: "Sometimes the best hiring process is just… letting people prove they can actually do the job. DSA questions don't build apps, people do."
What Netizens Have To Say?
This tale created a heated debate on the web. Most of them appreciated Singh's creative method.
One of them said: “I agree the questions and coding challenges are a waste of time and not a proxy for success. This approach can definitely work, but its hard to scale. There is so much scam out there. There are thousands of absolutely cracked devs looking for jobs, but there are just as many fake profiles out there looking for this exact scenario.
Another user reflected: “That’s a bold and refreshing approach, though I wonder if it might unintentionally miss out on great developers who can’t afford to take the short-term risk. How do you think companies can balance this practical test with making the opportunity accessible to more talent?”