Assignment

Source: https://www.programmfabrik.de/en/assignment-frontend-backend-developer-job-berlin/

Code a tic-tac-toe game

Depending on the job you are applying for, you can code in Javascript (ECMA) or C++.

Requirements

• Use your own code only and start from scratch
• Player can choose the opponent to be human or computer
• Use [L]GPL'ed libraries if necessary, please include copyright notes
• Let us know how long it took you to code the game

JavaScript version

• Implement in Javascript so that it works in Mozilla Firefox
• Make use of CSS, provide nice visuals
• Make the back button work

C++ version

• Implement in C++, so that i works on the command line under Linux
• The opponent has to be unbeatable

Solution

Time spent

By major chunks of work in git history:

• ~0.5 hours to set up the project;
• ~5 hours to implement game board serialization, tic-tac-toe rules and game solver (with tests);
• ~1 hour to set up the backend / frontend structure with JSX templating and static resources;
• ~2 hours to implement progressively enhanced form and query string value trackers (both on backend and in web components);
• ~3 hours to implement basic game UI in client-server mode;
• ~2 hours to enhance the most basic game UI features on frontend for offline mode;
• ~2 hours to make UI fully functional, to cleanup the code and reduce duplication between frontend and backend, and to make the resulting page somewhat presentable
• ~2 hours to implement another set of tic-tac-toe rules (with tests), support for changing board size (both on backend and in web components).

...which makes it ~18 hours total. I definitely did not expect to spend that much; but also originally I didn't think that the scope will expand this much.