Want a Software Job? Finish This Test .... Part 1

There is a relatively new paradigm for hiring software developers and coders. It consists of an applicant sending in his resume online. Before there is any initial contact at all, the applicant is sent a coding exercise. Reprinted below is one such:

We have reviewed your resume and would like to move forward in our interview process with you! In order for us to understand how you approach your work and to move to the next level of our process, please complete the following coding exercise.

Using Java/Python, please design and implement the classes for a card game (pick any game, Poker for example), which uses an ordered deck of cards, containing 52 cards divided in 13 ranks (A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K) with four suits: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. The cards can be, at a minimum, shuffled, cut, and dealt (feel free to implement additional ones that are required by the game).

* You do not have to model the gameplay, but include code required for the different stages of the game (e.g., evaluating player hands)
* You do not have to model any player bidding
* List any assumptions you make

Thanks again for your help in streamlining this process and we look forward to reviewing your code!

The Engineering Team

This seems rather cold to me, but that is the way software development companies are operating these days.

I will examine this phenomena in three parts. This is the introductory part. Would you do this to get a job? Do you think that this is a fair thing to do before being contacted by a human being and evaluated personally? This is a lazy, shotgun approach to recruiting where the applicants do all of the work. It is rather Darwinian, but I will have more on this in part 2.