HackerRank Identifies Strongest Student Developers Around the World

Analysis of over 1.4 million assessments finds best-performing students don't always attend top-ranked universities

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Aug 08, 2019, 09:00 ET

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Technical hiring platform HackerRank released university rankings today that identify which universities around the world have students with the strongest key developer skills. The rankings are based on more than 1.4 million student assessments administered by potential employees on HackerRank's platform during their interview processes. They show that the best student developers attend universities that emphasize practical skills, and that student performance doesn't always align with university reputation. In addition, they provide a blueprint for where technical recruiters can find the strongest new developers to fill the growing number of jobs in this field.

"Where a software developer went to college is not an indicator of how strong a programmer they are. As hundreds of thousands of new developer jobs are created over the next decade, hiring managers can't rely on the resume to find great technical talent. They need more modern ways to find new graduates and assess their skills," said Vivek Ravisankar, co-founder and CEO of HackerRank. "This isn't just a challenge for tech companies – to stay competitive, companies in every industry must evolve their technical recruiting processes."

HackerRank classified which universities in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific region, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa have the strongest developers based on student performance in four key skills: problem solving, language proficiency, data structures knowledge and Computer Science (CS) fundamentals. Ranking schools based on technical skills that employers need is a better indication of professional success than university-centric data points like teaching, citations and research, and thus a more valuable guide for tech recruiters and hiring managers.

Key findings from the research include:

In the Americas, the best-performing students attend a mix of traditional top-tier CS programs and lesser-known ones. Columbia University and Carnegie Mellon ranked highly, but schools like Stanford, MIT and Princeton – while included in the analysis – made no appearances across the four skills. UC Berkeley had a strong showing across all four key skills, likely due to a combination of a CS curriculum that emphasizes working on interdisciplinary real-world projects, and its strong developer culture. Other schools that ranked in the top five for different skills were Arizona State University and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) lead the Asia-Pacific region, driven by their specialization in creating curriculums that focus on engineering and technology. IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras appeared in every category, and only two non-IIT universities – Banaras Hindu University and Vellore Institute of Technology – ranked in this region.
Imperial College London was the only university in Europe to rank across all four skills. Imperial College's focus on helping students learn through "an emphasis on practical work" gives its students strong real-world skills. Though it's not typically recognized among top CS programs, Turkey's Bilkent University also ranked among the top five for two of the key skills, making it an overlooked talent pool for university recruiters.

About HackerRank

HackerRank is a technical hiring platform that helps businesses evaluate software developers based on skill. Over 1,500 customers across all industries, including 5 out of the leading 8 commercial banks in the U.S., rely on HackerRank's automated skills assessments to evaluate and hire technical talent from around the world. Close to 6 million developers (over 20 percent of the global developer population) trust HackerRank to learn and practice coding. Every eight seconds, someone around the world completes a HackerRank assessment. For more information, visit www.hackerrank.com.

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SOURCE HackerRank