Walmart Sparkplug: Intimidating Interviews Replaced By A Fun Hackathon With Better Results

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Walmart Global Tech is the tech wing of Walmart, helping one of the world’s biggest retailers deliver innovative solutions and disrupt the retail landscape. Walmart Global Tech works to create a seamless, omnichannel shopping experience for customers across the globe. It does so by leveraging emerging technologies and innovating, continuously. 

One of Walmart Global Tech’s core principles is infinite learning and unparalleled growth. It’s an organization that believes in creating opportunities for everyone - and was thus, on the lookout for summer interns who could imbibe the same values, and truly benefit from an opportunity to work with Walmart. 

In this case study we will see how Walmart Global Tech employed interns through a thorough assessment process that eliminated the need for additional interviews, challenging traditional hiring practices. 

The Ask: A Problem For All Seasons

Walmart Global Tech was looking for excellent coders who could also be invaluable interns. The idea was to find a talented group of individuals who were not only technically proficient but also eager to learn and bring a fresh perspective - all qualities that make interns a valuable resource.  

In a country where engineering is one of the most favoured degrees, finding the right intern(s) was akin to finding needle(s) in a haystack. However, having already collaborated with Unstop for the CodeHers challenge, Walmart was well aware of Unstop’s ability to execute a coding challenge that could accurately test participants' skill sets. And effectively sift through the competition, going beyond traditional tools of assessment. 

CodeHers was a diversity-focused hackathon i.e. an exclusive female hiring hackathon. With CodeHers, Walmart was able to not just meet, but rather exceed its gender mandates. Read more about how Walmart CodeHers changed the game here. 

Thus, Walmart Global Tech collaborated with Unstop to find the perfect group of summer interns through an intense, but fair coding competition for engineering students. 

The Solution: Building A Framework

The team at Unstop, with Walmart Global Tech, conceptualized Walmart Sparkplug - a comprehensive coding challenge that accurately tested participants’ knowledge, while also evaluating their speed and accuracy of coding. 

The coding challenge was divided into three main rounds - an MCQ round, followed by two coding challenges. Prior to the challenge, Unstop also organized a demo quiz round to help participants familiarize themselves with the platform - minimizing the risk of human error. 

Let’s dive into what the coding challenge looked like: 

MCQ Challenge: A timed quiz where candidates had to crack 25 questions on topics like Data Structures, Algorithms, Object Oriented Programming and Design, along with other Computer Science fundamentals. 

Coding Challenge 1: Participants presented logical coding solutions (in any language of their choice) to two problem statements at hand. The time limit for the round was set at 90 minutes. 

Coding Challenge 2: Shortlisted candidates from the coding round underwent a second round of coding, where they again provided logical coding solutions (in any language of their choice) to two problem statements. This round also had a time limit of 90 minutes. 

The selected candidates had to undergo a final profile verification process, before being hired as interns. This assessment framework was not just detailed, but also highly effective - so much so that Walmart selected interns on the basis of their performance in the challenge alone, without conducting any additional interviews. 

The Outcome: Cracking The Code 

Walmart Sparkplug received an overwhelming response, with students from India’s finest engineering colleges battling it out to work with Walmart Global Tech. The numbers below shed light on the kind of response the challenge garnered: 

• Walmart Sparkplug was open to engineering students (both graduates and postgraduates) from 34 select engineering colleges. It managed to reach over 25 lakh individuals. 
• The registration window was open for less than a month - 20 days to be exact. In just 20 days, 10,000+ students registered for the event. 
• 23% of the total registrations, i.e. 2,457 registration were from female coders.
  
• The week-long challenge had multiple rounds - all of which took place on Unstop, helping Walmart save considerable time and resources. 

Walmart’s continued association with Unstop helped it meets its gender mandate, and find the right summer interns - individuals who had a fresh perspective and were eager to learn. 

If you too are looking for effective solutions for all your hiring needs, reach out to coffee@unstop.com.