Stage 1 of 4: Compare two hands
Background. Camel Cards is a simplified poker: two players, a hand each, and you decide whose hand is stronger. README.md is the brief, as an interviewer would hand it over: the cards, the five hand types in their order, and the tie-break. Read the order of the types carefully; it is not poker's.
camel_cards.py is a stub.
Implement evaluate(hand1, hand2) for four-card hands. It returns "HAND_1", "HAND_2" or "TIE", and raises ValueError for a hand that is not four cards labeled 1 to 9.
The brief says more hand types are coming, so decide where a new one would go before you write the first.
Done when Submit goes green.
Constraints
- Python 3.12+ standard library only
- Time limit: 10 seconds per test
- Editable:
camel_cards.py - Read-only:
README.md, alltests/test_*.pyfiles
What comes after stage 1
The next stages open once the tests for the one before them pass. Each raises the bar, the way an interviewer does in the room.
- Stage 2: Five cards, new hand types.
- Stage 3: Best and worst hand.
- Stage 4: Incomplete hands.
The files you get
- Yours to edit: camel_cards.py.
- Read-only: README.md, tests/__init__.py.
- Tests you can read and run: tests/test_part1_evaluate.py. Hidden tests run on Submit.
The round: an agent in the editor
The assistant here works like the one in the interview IDE. It reads your files, runs code and proposes changes, and you accept or reject each one. It doesn't volunteer ideas, so what gets built is what you asked for. Along the way the interviewer asks about your decisions, and at the end the report says what you checked and what you accepted unread.
Frequently asked, briefly answered
Is Camel Cards free?
It is a Pro problem. Free plan includes one complete problem, plus the first stage of several more, so you can see how a round works before you pay.
Which company asks something like this?
Rippling.
Do I bring my own AI tool?
No. The assistant is in the editor, same as in the interview IDEs at Meta, Stripe and Amazon. What you choose at Begin is the format: an agent that proposes changes you accept or reject, an answer-only assistant that can't write code, or no assistant at all.
What does the interviewer ask?
4 questions along the way about your own code, and one at the end about the whole session. A weak answer gets one follow up. The answers go into the report, which ends with a hire or no hire verdict.
Start the problem
Sign in and the problem opens where you left it. New here? An account takes a minute to create, and the Pro plan starts at the first stage of this problem.
More like it: every practice problem, how Rippling runs its AI round, the AI coding interview guide.