The CDF Core Recruitment Test

Instructions for attempting Test:

Please follow the following instructions explicitly.

1- Copy and paste the entire test to MS Word

2- Write answers below each question. You have until the deadline below to work on this test freely.

3- You will be evaluated only based on the best 50% of your answers. The rest of the answers will not be considered for evaluation.

4- We suggest you attempt all questions

5- You are encouraged to use online materials, textbooks and other reference guides to answer

6- When finished, email the completed document to jobs@coreframeworks.com.

7- Based on the results of the test, we will get back to you within a few days.

Also, please note the following:

• Test can be submitted only once

• Please Attach your NIC copy (or number) with the test

• Explicitly mention the job position in the email subject

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Question 1

You are heading your own team for a project. Half-way down, you notice that your team is losing its enthusiasm and energy. How would you motivate them?

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Question 2

You are a key part of a team that is building an important software product for a client. You have 5 days before go-live, and your team is on-track to make the software ready for production by then. You are personally responsible for the most critical portion of the project.

The client will be formally launching this application globally from a special Launch Event that will be held in 5 days. The client has booked a 3000-seat conference hall for the launch event, and all the preparations are in place. More than 500 news reporters from leading international news magazines will be attending.

Today, you find out that a close family member — your father — has suddenly fallen ill, and will need to be hospitalized for one week. He will need your close support and attention.

Realizing how much is at stake, what would you propose to your supervisor what the company should do in this situation? How would you present the situation to the supervisor? (Please explain less than 20 lines)

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Question 3

Improve on the usability and user-friendliness of the following remote control, keeping the following in mind:

• The gadget is multi-purposed: It can be used as a garage-opener and a TV remote.
• The gadget will be made specially for elderly people.

Primary functionality includes:

1. Changing channels
2. Adjusting volume
3. Opening and closing the garage

You can change anything from the color to the positions of the buttons. You can also remove any buttons that you wish, or add additional buttons provided you state their purpose clearly.

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Question 4

Situation: You were asked to come up with the object level design for one module of the system. Your design reflects your experience on similar work in the past. However, some seniors in the company disapprove of your design and ask you to implement the solution another way. They do not seem to have any basis for their request except that they have another perspective for the application in their minds. What’s more, you feel that your design would be more efficient for the particular situation. What would you do?

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Question 5

You are given a project by a client that needs 80 man-hours for development of a certain item, and you have 3 other team members to complete the project. Given a deadline of two weeks, tell us how you would divide your work into phases according to time in order to successfully release the software to the clients

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Question 6

You are asked to plan an event featuring an orchestra. The music that will be played will shift between soft to emotional to uplifting. The musicians will be told when to shift the tone of the composition according to the above three tones. The lights in the amphitheatre will be required to shift according to the music. There will be a video played on a large screen behind the orchestra. The video will be composited live, with one camera on the audience, one on the orchestra, one on the overall amphitheater, and with blending some stock images of nature scenes.
You are asked to create keyframes to give to the compositor before the show, so that he can produce the live broadcast.

Make a list of the keyframes, and write down how the lights, video display, and broadcast cameras will be queued for each keyframe.

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Question 7

Your clients have designed a new shoe and they would like you to do the following:
1- Ensure that all of their retail partners are willing to keep that shoe on display. (Assume the client has 4 retail partners)
2- Ensure that an appropriate demand forecast is given to the factories well before the launch date
3- Ensure that all factories are able to make all of the shoes on time in order for launch
4- Ensure that all shoes get to the retail shops well before launch.
The launch window is in 2 months.
Your job now is to present your plans to your own supervisor for approvals. Briefly explain how you would present the plans. The objectives are to,

• Define the project in 1-2 sentences.
• Reduce it to a set of manageable tasks
• Build a time-line to achieve tasks
• Estimate appropriate and necessary resources
• Build a team structure
• Plan how you would monitor and control the work
• Suggest a process of reporting progress to senior management

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Question 8

You are creating internal training videos. The training manager tells you that the current are not effective because

• They are considered too boring;
• Have too much information to digest;
• Are essentially built as a simple demonstration and walkthrough of the policies.

You are asked to improve the training videos. The videos should have an element of humor to maintain interest, but at the same the executive team wishes to also demonstrate the company culture and core values.
What would be the basic theme and concept behind the changes you suggest? How would that concept be presented in the videos, within the speech of the presentation, within any supporting documents given to the trainees?
You are asked to complete the re-make of the video presentations within two weeks. Make a work-breakdown schedule you will follow to meet your goal.

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Question 9

Your company has designed a new hair dryer which can greatly save the users time. Instead of typically 15 minutes, your product can do the job in less than 3 minutes.
Your supervisor tells you that the target market for the product are students and professional women.
In a few sentences explain how you would approach the following;

• Product Placement according to target market

• What should the theme of the advertisements be around your product for your target market?

• In 3 lines or less, describe a simple concept of one of the ads you would propose

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Question 10

You are managing a project. The completion deadline is 7.5 days away. You have 3 resources assigned to you, and the tasks that are left to achieve are as follows;

Task 1: 30 manhours
Task 2: 20 manhours
Task 3: 15 manhours
Task 4: 45 manhours
Task 5: 30 manhours
Task 6: 10 manhours

Rules:

• Task 4 is dependent on Task 3 for completion
• Task 1 and Task 5 can not be done simultaneously
• Task 2 can not start before Task 3

Please schedule the resources appropriately, in order to meet your deadline.

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Question 11

In four short sentences (or less), explain your interpretation of the Lipton brand.

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Question 12

A- What is storyboarding? Where and why is it used? [Research Online]
B- What would you do if a storyboard has three key-frames in between two pictures? Why is it important to do what you just suggested?
C- When would you care about the perspective shown in a story board?

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Question 13

A) In 5 lines or less, explain the difference between linear and non-linear editing.
B) Think of a situation in which linear editing will be more useful. Explain why.

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Question 14

You clients ask you to create marketing brochures for an MP3 player that stores 2000 songs.

When you create brochures of the product, you realize that your client’s customers actually start mistaking your product for their competitors product!

It is too late to change the physical look of the MP3 player. However, you are asked to design new stock photos of the product and create new brochures so that it can be distinguished from the competitor.

The product manager explicitly asks you “Give the photos a look so that the customer thinks that our product is better than the competition.”

By just suggesting visual changes on the brochure, can you make the product look more appealing and a better choice for customers? Suggest three ways in which you can do that.

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Question 15

Your clients have given you an application that they have a hard time using, because they find the user interface confusing. They would like you to suggest improvements.

A- The application categorizes all of their products together in a tree-based visual structure (just like Windows explorer), but the clients have to click too many times to find relevant products, and relevant related accessories to the products. How would you propose the software UI be changed to address this issue (you can describe changes at the control level, the data representation level, or even just in the visual style such as colors.) [Explain your answer in 30 lines or less]

B- The application makes the users add a product, add accessories, add discounts, add shipping partners, add credit card information, and finally package this all together as a report. However, currently they have to go through a series of 6 screens in order to do all of this (clicking ‘next’ along the way). Now, they would like all of this work to happen from the same screen. Propose a UI to them [You may attach a rough sketch diagram, or CLEARLY describe in 30 lines or less]

C- The client tries to implement a solution to the issue in (B). Now, they have one screen but it has almost 80 different text fields in forms to fill in. The client gives you the following requirement “Make this so intuitive that it is dramatically easier to use”. What would you propose to the client?

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Question 16

You are hired by a leading commercial airplane manufacturer. They think that the cockpit of the plane has too many levers and buttons, and they want to create a brand new cockpit dashboard based on touchscreen computer displays (as in ATM machines).

The requirement of the new dashboard is “the pilot should immediately be able to find the option he wants, when he wants to find it, based on the action he is performing at that moment”.

E.g. During takeoff or landing, it may be helpful to see the controls related to the landing gear. At other points during the flight, those controls may not be visible.

Describe what you would propose as the design of the hardware of the system