Developers

An open letter to our users

We would like to convey our deepest apology to all the participants of InMobi Hiring Challenge. We messed up this one, we realize it and we regret it. Servers shot to a 100% CPU utilization, page loads were excruciatingly slow and the random 500s in the first 20 mins screwed what we had expected to be a smooth challenge. It was our fault, we miscalculated. We thought that 20 large instances would be enough to support the load, but we learned it the hard way when there are more than 600 people simultaneously submitting code, you need much more server bandwidth than that. However, it’s fortunate that we had invested time in scripts to auto launch server instances on AWS and were able to immediately fire up more instances. But as soon as we did that, we realized that database was going to become a bottleneck. Though we were able to resolve all  issues within the first 30 mins, it was still disheartening to see people trying to access the event page and not being able to do it.

We have started HackerEarth with a vision of changing the way recruitment is done in the industry today. We want to eliminate all kind of bias in the hiring process and let the code speak over all the big talk. We are building a platform where every developer has an equal chance to apply to companies with the skill they best know i.e. coding. But we fell short of our promise this Sunday. We want to make a developer’s code his/her identity, we want you to write code on our platform and we want you to have absolute fun while you do that.

Ever since this crisis happened, we have invested all our resources in making sure that something like this never happens again. It’s not that our platform cannot deliver, it’s just that our system was not intelligent enough to anticipate the load and scale accordingly. We are young, we code fast and deploy faster, but amidst this, we did a mistake that we did not invest in testing. We have never stressed our system, never tried to understand under what load it would break down, but we are doing that now.

It hurt us badly to read the responses of our unhappy users, but we are in a way thankful to each and every one of you who tweeted us, reached out to us on Facebook and emailed us. Though we wish, we had not made so many of you angry, but we are glad we got to hear you. It has helped us realize what are the shortcomings and strive harder to make our platform even more robust and failure proof. We also express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to our stakeholders.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Sachin Gupta

I am the co-founder and CEO of HackerEarth, I mostly do Business development for HackerEarth but I started my career as a programmer. I also have a passion for writing.

Share
Published by
Sachin Gupta

Recent Posts

Top 10 HR Competencies to Build a Strong HR Department: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction In today's dynamic workplaces, a strong HR department is no longer a luxury –…

7 hours ago

8 Steps for Conducting a Job Tasks Analysis: A Complete Guide

Job task analysis is a crucial process for understanding the specific duties and skills required…

8 hours ago

Top 8 Sourcing Tools for Recruiters: A Comprehensive Guide

In today's competitive talent landscape, attracting top candidates requires going beyond traditional job board postings.…

8 hours ago

The 12 Most Effective Employee Selection Methods: A Comprehensive Guide

Finding the perfect fit for your team can feel like searching for a unicorn. But…

8 hours ago

12 Important Recruiting Metrics You Should Know

Recruitment forms a strong foundation to build an effective team. However, do you know if…

12 hours ago

7 Modern Performance Appraisal Methods to Boost Workforce Development

Introduction Performance appraisal has seen a tremendous change over the years. It is no longer…

1 day ago