Format: 60 min on CodeSignal. Using CodeSignal's built-in Claude terminal (kept getting throttled, and very slow). The interviewer evaluates how you scope the work, direct the AI, and verify what it produces, not whether you can type it all yourself.
Problem: URL shortener (internal go-links)
Build an internal go-link tool, e.g. go.internal/ifd → a Notion page. It's scoped to about 100 users, so no scale or distributed-systems concerns. The namespace is global: any user can visit any short link.
Part 1: core create/visit API
- Create a short link → long URL mapping, and visit a short link to get redirected
- In-memory storage is fine (a string-to-string map)
I had Claude plan first, then generate a Spring-style Java project with a LinkStore, a LinkService, an HTTP layer, and unit tests. I got it running on port 3000 and confirmed create, visit, and delete worked end to end.
Part 2: auth and analytics
- Add a login/session flow; unauthenticated users can't create links
- Track link ownership: anyone can view all links, but users can delete only their own
- Analytics: most-visited links, links per user, and who created each link
Time was tight here, so I told Claude to skip unit tests and focus on getting the features built.
Result: rejected - ai-enabled coding was awkward, ran out of time
Discussion
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