Time and again we have received feedback from candidates that it is a distraction to figure out how to parse program input. It is particularly irksome for candidates who choose languages like Javascript, where knowing how to read console input is virtually never a real world requirement.
We, as well as our customers, want candidates to focus on showcasing their algorithm / problem-solving skills rather than struggle with uncommon programming patterns. To that end we promote setting up Code Stubs as a best practice while creating coding questions. The Question creation tool has always allowed a way for the problem setter to do this. Today we have made a change that make the process even easier to use. 
Before we proceed, just a word on terminology. ‘Stub’ is the function present in the Body. This is what a candidate is expected to fill out. ‘Scaffolding’ is the part of the auto-generated code that surrounds the Stub and includes code that reads test cases from STDIN and write the output to STDOUT. ‘Template’ is used for the whole thing – i.e. Stub + Scaffolding. The screenshot above is from Step 2 of a Create New Question or Edit Question workflow. The key improvements from the older workflow are highlighted for you. In brief they are:
- You can now view the entire code stub the same way it is shown to candidates when they take a test.
- There is a clear visual indicator if the problem setter has modified the system generated templates.
- There is an easy way to discard user edits and go back to system generated templates.
Let us know what you think!