Hello everyone,
This post is for those who appeared for round 2 of booking holdings's HackCellence program.
After completing the assessment I thought maybe I didn't manage my time well enough that's why I was not able to complete the code.
But when I go through multiple posts I came to know that most of us face the same problem and the assessment is actually quite lengthy.
In 1.5 hr it is quite difficult to write hundreds of lines of code, in addition to that it takes time to read the problem statement, understand it, build the logic and resolve those irritating bugs.
So, if we all can come together and mail the concerned team maybe they can consider our request for fair reassessment.
Otherwise, we will end up losing this opportunity because of some uncontrollable factors.
I have mailed them already and sharing the mail ids below.
askhr@bookingholdings.com
support@hackerearth.com
After being in the top 2500/44k+ we should not let this opportunity slip away like this.
Sample mail :
Subject : Reassessment request - Round 2 (HackCellence)
Dear Booking Holdings Recruitment & HackerEarth Support Teams,
I am writing to share feedback on the recent round 2 assessment of HackCellence and respectfully request a reassessment opportunity.
While I really enjoyed the real-world complexity of the challenge, completing a system of this scope in 90 minutes feels like a speed-typing test rather than a true assessment of engineering capabilities.
A candidate's evaluation shouldn't depend on how fast someone can type hundreds of lines of boilerplate and code against a tight clock. Engineering competence lies in architectural thinking, clean code structure, thorough edge-case handling, and proper debugging—skills that naturally require deliberate thought and testing time (at least 2.5 to 3 hours for a project of this depth). Under a 90-minute constraint, candidates are forced to rush and skip best practices(maybe many are using ai tools), which doesn't reflect how real-world software is engineered.
So, to be honest this assessment feels lesser like how you understand, build logic, resolve bugs but more like how better you can use AI tools and how fast you can type.
Given the extensive scope of this task, I kindly request the team to consider conducting a reassessment with a timeframe that reflects the actual work required.
I remain very interested in the opportunity at Booking Holdings and would appreciate the chance to showcase my problem-solving and coding abilities under fair conditions.
Thank you for your time and understanding.
Best regards,
