We offer the test task to check the practical skills of a candidate if he doesn’t have commercial experience.

What the test task looks like:

• The task is formulated clearly, we indicate the main evaluation criterion, i.e. which aspects we will pay more attention to and which ones – less;
• The requirements for graphics are minimal, but not absent because visuals form a complete picture;
• We treat the test task as a regular task from the task tracker issued by PM.
• The task should be completed in less than a working day (up to 8 hours);
• Please attach a cover letter to the completed test task, in which you indicate and explain the solutions you have chosen.

What exactly  we pay attention to when we check a test task:

• Cover letter (usually a wiki in the repository).
• The project in the repository:

The project from the test task should be on any version control service, for example, GitHub.

We pay attention to how the commits are made and signed.

• Basic review of the Unity project in the editor:

We download and check the project for compilation errors and warnings in the console.

The project should have a basic workflow: start, core feature, win/lose screen, and restart (automatic or manual). We also pay attention to the project structure (folders and files). We review content and its management: scenes, prefabs, and other assets.

• Code review:

Code style and convention, assembly definitions, namespaces.

Class names, method names, access modifiers, selected abstractions.

Project initialization, dependencies between entities, dependency resolution.

Evaluation of the implementation of scripts which are directly related to the main feature of the technical task.

The concept of a clean code includes the following points:

– The same code style and conventions in the project. There are clear rules that are applied to name of classes, interfaces, methods, fields, properties, the same indents, etc. It’s not so important which these rules are, but what is important is to follow them. Moreover, nowadays any modern IDE has a basic configuration and highlights any inconsistencies.

– Self-documented code, which means that comments are not required everywhere. In general, the company doesn’t mind comments in the code if they are specifically  implemented  (e.g., mathematical models, laws) or important parts of code. But that does not mean that comments should be everywhere because this will only worsen the readability of the code. 

Make sure that your code comments are detailed, technical, and clear enough. And when you name classes, interfaces, and methods, use English to avoid making the code looks like comic text.

– Use principles and popular patterns that are suitable for the project. “Reinvent the wheel” for each task will make it difficult to read the code and maintain it by other developers.

– Clear and understandable entity dependencies. The code is “clean” in terms of its coherence in the project: what patterns were used to resolve dependencies and how.

• The algorithmic component of the solution. 

For example, how efficiently the candidate forms a sample of objects and processes them.

• Understanding how the Unity Engine works.

For example, whether the candidate knows about the existence of naming conventions, and understands the basic hierarchies and purposes of the framework classes that should or can be used during the task or not.

• The presence of an improvement that makes some “sporting” sense (e.g., the implementation has improved performance compared to the basic solution, but does not degrade the way it is used) or has a real-life purpose (e.g., the candidate took care of the possibility of expanding the functionality in advance and made additional decomposition and more flexible distribution of responsibilities in the system) will be an advantage for the candidate.
• The candidate’s ability to explain his thoughts and to understand the task is a fundamental evaluation criterion.

After all, a junior developer is a specialist with whom other developers in the company will spend a lot of time: communicating with him, helping him develop, learn, making code reviews.

If you are still at a crossroads and don’t know how to start as a developer, we have some tips for you:

• If you’re starting to learn a new technology or stack, be sure to solve a real-world problem, because it will give you more interesting questions and answers than a ready-made tutorial or course. Better yet, post the solution to this problem in Git.
• Try to analyze how easily you get along with people and how you react in difficult situations. Try to improve your soft skills so you will be on the same page with the interviewer and it will be easier to build a dialog.
• Objectively assess your skills to understand your strengths and weaknesses. It is better to know fewer technologies in your stack but be more professional with them than to have a huge stack on your resume and know only the basics.
• Participate in game and app development jams and competitions. This experience will give you many advantages, interesting knowledge, new useful contacts, and the opportunity to be noticed by successful companies.

The post How test tasks for junior developers being reviewed in KAPPS appeared first on KAPPS.

Even in peacetime, IT recruiters had to go out of their way to find and hire new developers. With the beginning of a full-scale war in Ukraine, this task became even more difficult. Our recruiter and HR Manager, Nadiya Rakovska, shares her own experience in this blog. She tells in detail about how to recruit during the war and gives tips, thanks to which our company was able to reduce the employee recruitment cycle by three times.

In the first two weeks of the full-scale war, we were all scared for our lives and became “frozen”, not understanding how to be and what to do next. We did not know what it was like to live during the war. There were many questions that no one could answer clearly: whether recruiting in IT will be relevant, whether people still will be looking for jobs, and whether there will be work at all…

So when I heard that management was not planning to stop hiring, I was against it. It seemed to me that during the war, people think foremost about their lives, and only lastly about work. I was afraid to even think about writing to the candidates because my letter might be just untimely and inappropriate. However, at some point, I decided to look at the situation from the side not of fear, but of opportunities. And then the new decisions came.

How we hired employees: under the sound of sirens and from bomb shelters

We decided to start with candidates who were “in active search“: someone who lost his job due to destroyed offices, someone who previously worked for russian or belarusian companies, or someone who was planning to change jobs even before the war. I also carefully updated information on the candidates we were scheduling the interviews with before, but never had a chance to make them.

The next step was to move on to “passive” candidates. It is important to note that attempts to communicate with them were very careful. After all, we did not know where and under what conditions the person was, whether it was appropriate to write to him and what the reaction would be.

Then we decided to expand the geography of the search for candidates. Our efforts were facilitated by the fact that many Europeans now admire the steadfastness and determination of our people, and they would love to become part of the Ukrainian team.

I had great respect and admiration for the developers who went to defend the country. They spoke briefly about it in response to my messages. They are the pride of our country and we will be very much looking forward to their return after victory.

I had to conduct several interviews at my own bomb shelter. Thankfully, we have a dental office with Wi-Fi above it There were also interviews when I could hear the sound of a siren through the phone.

As a result, we were able to hire 10 candidates in a few months. Before the start of the war, we had 20 people on our team, now we have 30. That is, we managed to increase the speed of hiring employees by three times because usually the process of hiring one Unity developer takes two months.

Communication with candidates has also changed. Every interview now begins with questions about whether the person and his family are safe now. Sometimes you have to hear stories, after which you want to hug the candidate and ask nothing more. But we will overcome all difficulties and become even better. We will manage because our people cannot be broken.

Tips for successful recruitment of IT specialists

It should be taken to account that in IT and game development, in particular, everyone is pursuing interesting projects. Therefore, the goal is to discuss the project the candidate will work on, why it is interesting and important and what’s its mission. By giving candidates the opportunity to choose a project that is more interesting to them (if you have several), you will get an even bigger plus in your favour.

The basic advantages of the IT sphere, such as remote work and competitive salary, are no longer surprising. But candidates will appreciate the stability your company can provide employees during this extremely difficult time. Be sure to be one of the first to discuss this topic.

Use your media and social networks to communicate your story, values, and culture. If one of the candidates has already managed to use your product or play your game, this will definitely increase their loyalty to you. And if they read a fantastic interview with your CEO or developers, it will help them fall in love with your team even before they meet.

In IT recruiting, even in peacetime, the speed of the company’s decision to work with the candidate plays a decisive role. Especially in wartime, try not to drag out the selection process – if possible, reduce the number of interview stages and provide feedback over several days.

Whether you’re in a bomb shelter or your home office, try to create a friendly atmosphere during the interview. The conversation should not resemble an exam, but a discussion of technical topics, an exchange of experience. Thanks to this communication, the candidate should feel with which people, in which atmosphere he will work in the future.

I wish you to stay safe and take care, I hope those few tips and our experience can help your company grow even in those tremendously difficult times.

The post Recruitment during the war appeared first on KAPPS.

Working on the Nunu Spirits was always multifaceted and interesting. We always believe that a developer must be passionate about the life of the project, from the very beginning to the very end. This is not just about writing code or having excitement about the graphical component but also about interacting with each other.

This was our case with the Slovakian team on the Nunu Spirits project. We were lucky to work with them, as it was a constant pleasure, no matter all challenges we’ve faced. We have never met such enthusiastic, responsible, kind, and down-to-Earth people at the same time.

What’s Nunu Spirits?

Before we go to our personal experience on the project, we’d love to describe it to you. With the help of Nunu, which is a whole fantasy world, you can plant trees by playing a game. Players collect and earn 3D NFTs called Nunus, where every Nunu has the chance to become a real tree, planted in the real world.

This is how the Nunu Spirits merges the joy of casual gaming and the earning capacity of blockchain and turns it into ecological action. This was a very exciting and innovative project to work on. Making a game with reforesting initiatives around the world was also something we felt is very important, especially from now on.

Interpersonal connections

To start describing our connection with the team, it was based on the same values and very matching energy. Our calls would show this mutual understanding between the two companies at their best. All discussions of the project on average had been taken no more than half an hour a week! This shows how fast and easy our communication flow was.

In addition, what made us respect Nunu Spirits so much is their concern about the war in Ukraine. They sincerely asked each developer on our team about their personal situation, were willing to help anytime, and if some breaks in the Internet connection were seen they were patient like no one else.

Technical tasks

Speaking about the technical tasks, our team was responsible for creating a prototype, which later grew into a full-fledged game. We were also writing a level Generator tool to fully create, edit and update the game world.

Another major things we’re proud to create for Nunu Spirits are animations. It was a great success because we had a complete understanding of what exactly the team wanted to get in the final looks of models in the game.

The result

Thus, we put a huge part of our soul into the gameplay, from the basic things (like the form of character control) to the revitalization of the game world. This Nunu Universe will make people delighted for sure people. And at the same time, it makes us proud of the effort we’ve put into creating it and the result we’ve got.

Nunu’s team feedback

“We were really glad to have the opportunity to cooperate with the whole KAPPS team. Even in this difficult situation, they were always able to provide professional, high-quality services. Our cooperation was very fruitful, and we hope to have a chance to work together on more projects in the future”, says Marek Bartovic, Nunu Spirits Game Producer.

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