Show HN: How Useless Are You? A brutally honest skills check
32 comments
·October 16, 2025neilv
> How useless are you for that cool startup?
> [...] after noticing how hard it is to get honest feedback when applying to a YC startup or something else entirely.
> It's a custom 5-minute challenge that roasts you after.
That's OK.
I've been working long enough in software engineering, to see the interviews turn... from collegially getting a sense of what it would be like to worth together, on the product and as part of the team... into frat hazings, negotiation negging opportunities, general corporate dysfunction, and fluffing some incumbent's ego.
So I think workers are all set, without roasting.
You know who could use a dose of humility, though?
jasonvorhe
I can't be the only one having had fun writing out some approaches and getting roasted for it?
It must be hitting a nerve if people use it and it's getting overloaded (or they're cheap w/r/t API budget).
edgyquant
we definitely hit a scale larger than expected, API budget wasn't really a factor tho
mraspuzzi
glad you're enjoying it! we've been increasing rate limits as it gets more usage.
jvanderbot
OK, pretty funny.
The issue is you're given 5 minutes to write a solution, and then criticized for the lack of depth (mercilessly and hilariously, granted). This is actually great practice for interviews, but not great at determining technical depth.
At the level of "five minutes to describe the entire system and its response to the worst confounding factors imaginable" it is not fair to say "You used keywords but didn't describe in detail how ... ".
It also guessed wrong that I'd never done any of this before, probably b/c of above issues.
As a way to belittle someone who self-selected into a skills review in the middle of a workday, probably so that they'll sign up for your training curriculum, then man, I gotta say it's probably going to work well. Especially once it's not an obvious snark generator and learns to cut a little deeper.
mraspuzzi
good feedback! easy to increase the timer and support for what gets checked
initial goal was make it as easy as possible for someone to try, and in early tests, people liked the quick challenge
and hear you on misuse. initial goal was a playful way to help people looking. not designed for on the job reviews
input_sh
Apparently not as useless as this website.
edgyquant
yeah that's my bad, my cofounder posted here I wasn't expecting it to hit the scale it did so fast
lurk2
“Failed to generate challenge. Please try again.”
bangaladore
Some of these questions are odd at best. But I guess this is what I'd expect out of a recruiter who had very surface level knowledge of a subject:
Firmware Resilience for a Voice-Activated Device The home assistant prototype just hit the lab, and its latest voice command triggers a rare crash—barely reproducible, but critical. Debug traces hint at a race condition when processing real-time audio and sensor interrupts under low-power standby. Today, you examine how the interrupt service routines interact with the scheduler, ensuring audio capture stays seamless even as the device maintains privacy guarantees and maximizes battery life. Firmware must not leak sensitive audio fragments after a crash. The hardware platform is arm-cortex based and will see hundreds of millions of users relying on every subsystem working as one.
mraspuzzi
thanks for the feedback. we're trying to generate questions on the spot, and have more ways to improve here
tmaly
I lead a team that is more quick reaction with same day or next day turn around times.
I often have to coordinate with multiple technical and customer facing teams.
This system does not seem to evaluate rapid situations like that very well. I was surprised by the results.
dookahku
I'm wondering what's the objective?
I typed in a bit of an answer, there's not a whole lot to go on, there's no room for me to ask questions about this scenario or get data.
When I filled out an answer it just told me I was useless. I don't really get the point. What was I supposed to learn?
jvanderbot
The objective is to get you to sign up for their LLM-driven training so that you'll be less useless. They want you to feel like they understand something and you do not.
edgyquant
we don't do LLM driven training, we are working on an ai-driven platform for tailored learning but I wouldn't call that training more of a replacement for traditional textbooks with a focus on DIY project based learning
mraspuzzi
this is our first launch like this, so our main objective is to see what people think
why 5min? in early tests with users people liked the shorter challenges than the longer ones
good feedback for more depth and more learning interaction.
this is v1 and definitely more areas to improve to make it less useless
gnomespaceship
It fails to generate a challenge for technical writing roles. Is this aimed only at engineers?
madaxe_again
They’re probably out of API credits.
jacomoRodriguez
I always get "failed to create challenge", even if I used the placeholder example
daemonologist
It's hitting a rate limit somewhere - lots of 429 responses.
null
YuriNiyazov
I got 99/100
We built this to answer "am I a fit for this role?"
after noticing how hard it is to get honest feedback when applying to a YC startup or something else entirely.
It's a custom 5-minute challenge that roasts you after.
Added a leaderboard for those who want to see how they stack up.
Roast us below.