Free labor in exchange for the possibility of an interview? I think the fuck not.

Correct. Coding would be paid, for example using bounties (https://docs.algora.io/doc/Bounties/).

Ah, in that case: Still seems kinda risky? Like, what if someone else submits a solution for the ticket I'm in the middle of? What if my solution is valid, but not accepted? What if it's incorrect, but in some subtle way that won't be discovered until next week?

Production work on an unfamiliar project warrants some discussion. I think in general I wouldn't make any significant contributions to a project before talking with the people running it and making sure we're on the same page.

And apologies for the initial curt reply—asking people who are looking for a job to work for free sets me off a bit. Algora looks like a really nice platform!

Thanks for your comment and reply! Very valid points.

> what if someone else submits a solution for the ticket I'm in the middle of?

You're right, the bounty should display the number of people working on it and when they started. That should be a feature - thanks!

> What if my solution is valid, but not accepted?

Very valid point again. I'd say it depends on the specification. When we did it https://algora.io/algora/challenge/bounties/1 we specified that we will reward the best submissions and not all of them. And we did only reward 3/5 PRs. Another early user chose to award all submissions. As long as it's specified and clear, people can decide accordingly.

> Production work on an unfamiliar project warrants some discussion

The past few months a recent graduate has been contributing to Algora before starting her job at Snap this summer, and we never actually spoke! Of course, there's plenty of discussion in issue & PR comment threads. The same goes for most open source software contributors around the world. But I see where you're coming from! It might come down to sufficient documentation.