dt

Edit: we've made some adjustments to the exercise. Here's the new version.

We're looking for talented senior web developers to join the team! It's mandatory to have a few years of professional experience in that domain. This is a telecommuting position, you can apply from anywhere. I could go on and on about how awesome the job is, but I think you secretly know already that it's the best job in the world, period.

The official job posting: deviantart.theresumator.com/ap…

The first step in the application process is to complete the following exercise. Once you've done it, send your solution to kouiskas [at] deviantart [dot] com and I'll get back to you within a few days to let you know about the next step. Good luck!

Note: Solving the exercise does not mean that you get the job (by our standards the exercise is not that hard), it's only the first screening in a much longer interview process.

Here's the zipped exercise: st.deviantart.net/dt/exercise/…

Instructions

We'd like you to enhance this web-based charting application.

We don't like all the whitespace. Expand the chart to fill the available space in the browser window.
Add support for our new data format (in addition to CSV). You can see an example of the format at st.deviantart.com/dt/exercise/…

Extend the program to accept the data file as a GET parameter. The program should use the appropriate Reader based on the file given and should gracefully handle any errors it encounters.

Fix all the bugs, optimize and improve everything that can be. However don't rewrite the application from scratch, we want you to keep the bulk of the existing code and leave the overall structure as it is.

We are unable to answer any questions about the program or these requirements. If any of the instructions seem ambiguous, use your best judgement.

Extra credit

Change the tooltips so that they display "N weeks ago" instead of timestamps.

Color any bars more than 1 standard deviation from the mean bright red.

Please refrain from discussing the solution in the blog's comments. It's an individual exercise, if you complete it with the help of other people it will be obvious to us when we interview you. And if some parts of the solution become common knowledge, we'll stop judging based on them. Just don't do it, bro (or sis)!