nzhao95/spacepallets

NERD Recruitment Tests

• NERD Recruitment Tests
  • How to build
  • Where to put your code
  • How to submit your implementation
  • CMake build system details
    • GCC/Clang machine flags control
    • Exercises build options
    • Candidate namespace option

How to build

First of all, you need CMake.

The canonical way to configure and build a CMake project still applies:

cmake -B build/your_config -S . # [-D...]
cmake --build build/your_config --config Release

A few helpers are provided and may help you setup the build:

• If you're using Visual Studio, run the script GenSolution.cmd and answer the questions.
• If you're using GNU make, then just type make and everything should go according to plan (it even works with MSVC).
  • To build in debug, type make MODE=debug.
  • To build with Clang, type make CC=clang.

In the first two cases, the build files are generated in the build folder and the binary files in the bin folder.

Where to put your code

We provide a framework for each exercise that typically consists of a main() and a placeholder for the function(s) you have to implement (plus some data where applicable). That placeholder consists of two files: one .h and one .cpp.

You can modify them as you see fit, as long as:

• you don't change the namespace nor the files' names
• it still builds against the unmodified main()

Keep in mind that the framework we provide is a minimal one and that we will likely put your code to more aggressive testing.

How to submit your implementation

• Before submitting, you are required to configure your project again (or run any helper you may have used initially to setup the tree). This will allow the build system to refresh the manifest of files that need to be included that you might have added/worked on for your exercises.

  cmake -B build/your_config -S .
  
  # the file manifest.submission.txt at the root gets updated, you can check
  # the file includes the files you worked on.
  # It will also include the GIT repository files, may you have used versioning
  # this will reviewers to look into your local commits too

• Build the Submission target, this will package your files in a file called Submission-${CANDIDATEID}.zip.

  cmake --build build/your_config --target Submission --config Release

You then need to upload it to the same place you downloaded this package from.

CMake build system details

The build system here has been kept as simple as possible, but with time it had to account for more and more details and options have been added to accomodate more peculiarities such as better x86 architecture flag controls, or exercise enablement/disablement.

GCC/Clang machine flags control

For candidates and reviewers using a GCC/Clang based toolchain:

• COMPILER_ENABLE_avx: Enable/Disable compiler corresponding -m flag
• COMPILER_ENABLE_avx2: Enable/Disable compiler corresponding -m flag
• COMPILER_ENABLE_avx512f: Enable/Disable compiler corresponding -m flag
• COMPILER_ENABLE_bmi2: Enable/Disable compiler corresponding -m flag
• COMPILER_ENABLE_fma: Enable/Disable compiler corresponding -m flag
• COMPILER_ENABLE_sse4: Enable/Disable compiler corresponding -m flag

NOTE On Linux i386/amd64 hosts, these flags get sensible default values grepping the /proc/cpuinfo file. For other hosts you must specify them to avoid generating code that generates illegal instructions for your host CPU. Using -march=native is not desired because it is then hard to replicate the candidate setup. Do not hesitate to communicate your flags if you submit solutions to optimization oriented exercises.

Exercises build options

Depending on the package you received the following options may be at your disposal to enable/disable each exercise individually:

• NERD_ENABLE_EXERCISE_DEEPLEARNING_INFERENCE: Enable/Disable compilation of the "Deep Learning Inference" exercise
• NERD_ENABLE_EXERCISE_ANAGRAMS: Enable/Disable compilation of the "Anagrams" exercise
• NERD_ENABLE_EXERCISE_LECOMPTEESTBON: Enable/Disable compilation of the "Le compte est Bon" exercise
• NERD_ENABLE_EXERCISE_MOMOMOTUS: Enable/Disable compilation of the "MoMoMotus" exercise
• NERD_ENABLE_EXERCISE_ROTATION: Enable/Disable compilation of the "Rotation" exercise
• NERD_ENABLE_EXERCISE_STARSYSTEM: Enable/Disable compilation of the "Star System" exercise
• NERD_ENABLE_EXERCISE_T10: Enable/Disable compilation of the "T10" exercise
• NERD_ENABLE_EXERCISE_RIGID_BODY_PHYSICS: Enable/Disable compilation of the rigid body physics exercise

Candidate namespace option

Controlling the candidate NAMESPACE. Useful for reviewers more than the candidates:

• NERD_CANDIDATE: set it to the namespace wished to be tested. The special value NONE disables this override and fallbacks to the code default value specified in the compilation units