[drudoo]

I understand what you are saying, but a request/demand like that would be a hard pass for me as a manager. I’ve worked at companies that require a high level of security clearance and we wouldn’t be able to show you anything before you are cleared. No NDA will fix that. What I’ve done before is to show cases or examples of fake code/work tasks that looks like production examples but are very different. This is for the candidate to get a feel of what they will work with.

[_ivi7]

I totally understand regarding the security clearance.

I updated my comment in terms of framing it as an ultimatum - that's not what I would say in the interview process.

Showing examples of fake code seems like a possibly great middle-ground here. As long as that code is an accurate reflection.

[CodeSgt]

I have a hard time imagining that if their code base is awful, they'll present you with awful fake code that accurately represents that.

[drudoo]

Thanks for the clarification. Ultimately I think a developer (and other employees) should be able to work with any task and (in this case) the status of the code shouldn’t determine if you want the job or not.

Personally I value other factors such as work/life-balance, coworkers, work-benefits and salary higher than the individual task I’m completing on a day to day basis.