Live coding and take-home projects
This course covers the two hands-on stages of a junior Rails hiring process: live coding sessions and take-home projects. It compares what each format checks. It then works through building a small Rails feature under a clock, using generators, migrations, params.expect and a Minitest check. Other lessons cover reading a take-home spec and using Enumerable and Hash methods such as group_by and sort_by. They also cover tests and a README for a reviewer, commit history, submission and the review call. A final lesson combines these steps on one take-home prompt.
What you'll learn
- ✓How live coding sessions and take-home projects differ in what they check
- ✓Choosing between a scaffold, a targeted generator and hand-written code under time
- ✓Turning a take-home spec into a task list with written assumptions and a clear scope
- ✓Reshaping data with group_by, tally, each_with_object, sum, sort_by, transform_values and filter_map
- ✓Writing behavior-focused Minitest tests and a README with decisions and assumptions
- ✓Preparing commits, following submission instructions and handling the review call
Live coding versus take-homes
The previous course, "Junior Rails interview questions", walked through the technical conversation. Someone asks what a request cycle looks like, or how a validation stops a bad row from reaching the database, and you can now hold that conversation. Most Rails hiring pipelines add one more stage…
Read the full lesson free →Curriculum
7 lessonsLive coding versus take-homes
Compares live coding sessions and take-home projects, what each one checks, and how to prepare for both.
Building a Rails feature under time
Covers scaffolds versus targeted generators, migration naming, params.expect in Rails 8, and one Minitest check under time.
Reading a take-home spec
Shows how to read a take-home spec twice, list tasks, record assumptions, keep to scope and time-box work.
Enumerable and Hash problems
Explains group_by, tally, each_with_object, sum, sort_by, transform_values and filter_map, with a graded group_orders challenge.
Tests and a README that impress
Describes what a reviewer reads first, how to test the behavior a spec implies, and which README sections to write.
Submitting and the review call
Covers commit history, .gitignore, following submission instructions, and explaining or extending your decisions on the review call.
Take-home: putting it all together
Applies every step to one order summary take-home, from reading the spec to answering follow-up review questions.