HELLO FUTURE HACKBRIGHTERS!
Meggie Mahnken
Sr. Director of Education
In order to gain admission to our sponsored cohorts, we look for technical aptitude in the form of being able to learn a bit of code and demonstrate your ability to use syntax successfully to solve an unfamiliar problem. The syntax we expect cohort candidates know includes the following:
1. Variables and basic data types (integers, strings, booleans)
2. Basic if-statements (check for equality, greater than / less than)
3. Basic for-loops (loop over list, loop a certain number of times)
4. Lists/arrays (looping over, adding to)
5. Optional: basic functions (create, call with parameter)
TIPS
If you have never written code before, we strongly recommend spending at least 10–20 hours learning the concepts above in a language of your choice (see below for recommendations) before attempting the assessment.
If you have written code before, we recommend spending 1–2 hours coding either on https://replit.com or in your own text editors practicing each of the syntax concepts above.
Which Programming Language
You are welcome to use any programming language to complete this assessment.
Our top recommendations for languages are JavaScript and Python.
RESOURCES
Here are some videos to help you gain familiarity with the following concepts using JavaScript.
Variables, Data Types, and Conditionals
Part 1: Printing Output (1:09)
Part 2: Variables (2:36)
Part 3: Data Types (3:12)
Part 4: If Statements (4:13)
Part 5: Conclusion (1:02)
Arrays and Loops
Part 1: Arrays (2:20)
Part 2: Loops (5:25)
Part 3: Loops & Arrays (10:29)
Part 4: Conclusion (0:40)
External Resources