The challenge questions are to filter out completely inappropriate candidates. They aren't meant to determine if you're a genius or not.

As for the CS degree requirement, not having one myself I run up against this all the time. A good company will be able to test for equivalent capabilities. A CS degree from DeVry in 1995 is probably not the same as one from Stanford in 2006. But by setting it out as a requirement, you're sending a message to candidates. They don't want a programmer that stumbles about their job. They want one with certain analytical skills and a calculated approach to their job. No, you don't need a CS degree necessarily. But you probably want to be familiar with the material that having a CS degree would suggest you are familiar with.

No hiring manager worth their salt would turn away an exceptional candidate because of a lack of formal education unless there were some very specific professional requirements (e.g., you're hiring a professional engineer in countries that recognize them and you need somebody with a B.Eng. degree).

They shouldn't call it a "challenge" then, it should be called a CAPTCHA or something to that effect.

As for the CS degree requirement, no candidate worth their salt would send their resume to a place knowing that they lack the first item on the requirements list. You need to make it clear that you read and understood the post before applying (a.k.a. following simple directions).

They didn't put it under "nice-to-have", they didn't tuck "or equivalent experience" at the end. It's the first bullet on their "minimum-requirements" list.

I do not have a CS degree either, but I believe I can code with the best of them and I can rock their front-end world (I do not want this job though).

Had I been seriously looking for another job, I would have simply ignored their post and moved on regardless of compatibility because of that one liner.

You don't just send a resume, you send a covering letter too. In the covering letter you can write "I understand that the position calls for XYZ as a requirement..." and go on to explain why you think you are qualified none-the-less. That means you have basic comprehension skills and an ability to think outside of the box too.

This is a sincere question: have you ever been on the other side of the hiring process before?

I have, as a tech lead for a software company. I don't know how other places do it, but there's simply not enough time in the day to read every single resume/cover letter that you get.

You post a job-ad and you're drowning in resume`s and cover letters in less than 30 minutes. I also want to say that 80-90% were under-qualified and most of them didn't even follow simple instructions in the ad.

You won't believe the amount of cover letters saying things like "I have never used Linux, but I've been working on Windows for X-XX years", when the job title was "Senior Linux Systems Administrator".

When we put requirements, we really meant them. We never inflated the requirements or asked for the impossible (28+ years experience in PHP).

Our process went kind of like this: 1) Scan cover letter quickly to weed out incoherent applications 2) Scan resume (again quickly) and look for minimum-requirements 3) If 1 and 2 were met put resume/cover letter in the "good candidates" folder 4) If "inbox" is not empty, go to step one, otherwise: 5) Go back and read cover-letters/resumes in more detail

The one exception would be if something in the cover letter or resume caught our attention, we'd then read it in detail then and there.

For all I know, DropBox might have a serious need to have this position filled by a CS graduate. I doubt it, but it's a possibility. Another commenter here said something about planning to have this position evolve into something more "intense" in the future where a CS degree would be seriously needed. That's a legitimate "theory".

All I was criticizing was that the job requirements do not warrant a CS degree, and that they are probably turning away possible good/great candidates.

So, thought experiment: say that I applied for this Web Developer position. And I left off my degree. And it said on my resume, "Implemented the current Google Search Result Page."

Would you reject me?

I guess your answer says a lot about the type of hiring process you have. But if I were the hiring manager, my immediate reaction would be "Fuck the posted requirements, this candidate has demonstrated that he's more than qualified for the job." The same goes for any other significant achievement. The requirements are there to give prospective candidates some idea of what we're looking for, but the ultimate trash-or-interview decision involves the whole package. If a candidate shows strengths in areas we didn't anticipate, so much the better. If they're missing one of the requirements but nail the rest, I'm not going to turn them away for that.

I have actually been on the other side of the hiring process. The best candidate that ever crossed my path was a Microsoft employee who was a high school dropout and applied anyways for a position asking for post-secondary qualifications (e.g., community college or university).

I've never been drowned in resumés so maybe my opinion would be more along the lines of yours if I had been. It's a job seeker's market up here in Toronto. I think the most resumés I've had to deal with for a particular position is a couple of dozen. When I was hiring I would only post the job ads at places like JoelOnSoftware's job board. I'd never post it on Monster as I consider places like that to attract too many poor quality candidates.

I disagree. If any job asks for degree etc I just ignore it. I don't think I'd enjoy working at a place where they value that sort of thing.

By doing this, you're probably filtering out many good employers. Just like the places that ask for degrees are probably filtering out many good candidates.

I just ignore the requirements - mostly - and if the job sounds interesting, I'll send them a note saying why it sounds interesting and why I believe I'm qualified. Let 'em reject me later, once they've got a bit more information, or vice versa.

That doesn't sound like a very accurate heuristic...