We are currently recruiting for a Junior Developer position working mainly in C on Linux.

As part of the process, we require candidates to complete a code test at their leisure in C.

So far we have rejected two candidates on the basis that their code, although readable and in one case rather idiomatic, suffered from buffer overflow errors due to unbounded buffer writes.

Are buffer overflows acceptable from a graduate developer? Are we setting the bar too high? What is the expected capability of graduate/Junior engineers?

[Edit]:

• We explicitly ask for error-checked, production quality code.
• We provide a test & build framework for the candidates