Hey all.

Although naturally everyone would have a fair idea as to where they stand as a developer (their strengths, weaknesses, etc), i was wondering if there might be something out there like for chess players, where you could complete a bunch of exercises and be given a rating that indicates your strength as a developer?

Not sure if it exists, but id be interested in giving it a go if it does lol

Thanks guys

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A pawn can eventually become a queen...

What language would the exercises use and why?

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To be fair, pseudocode I imagine. LOL other than hackthissite.org though, I havent really come across anything like I mentioned.

Maybe I've been playing too much chess

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A pawn can eventually become a queen...

Chess ratings, like ELO are determined through competition, which makes it a relative figure.

As programming isn't competitive, in the sense that the success of your programming isn't affected by opponent programmers, it wouldn't be a competitive figure.

What you're looking for is something closer to an IQ rating, than ELO rating. So if you successfully program something you get points, and the more programs you complete in an alloted time, the more points you get.

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I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

I'm secure in just knowing that I'm better than everyone else

There are things like topcoder and project euler which might be in the direction you are thinking.

Personally, I'd much rather devote my time to actually getting things done, rather than demonstrating that I am able to do them, without actually getting them done

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I guess it depends on the personality of the programmer. Some people value their potential more than they value their actual achievements.

Some people may be inclined to measure their potential and to work on improving that, rather than developing a portfolio and working on expanding that.

I generally like to do a bit of both I think, but I'm honestly not very interested in measuring my programming skill with a number. It seems like there are just too many factors to measure, as programming is an art as much as it is a science.

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I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

You hit the nail on the head there; naturally all I'd be doing with a hyperthetical "programmer rating" would be working on increasing it. I guess in this industry though (other than an IQ, like you mentioned), its up to a portfolio to reflect your ability as opposed to just a 'figure'.

It was still worth asking though

Thanks everyone for your replies =]

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A pawn can eventually become a queen...

Perhaps you could measure it the same way you'd measure artistic ability - how quickly/accurately you can translate the ideas in your mind into working code on your computer.

By that standard, I'm a programming newb. hehe

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