Getting a job in Telegram is not as simple as sitting across the table for an interview. The company’s cofounder and CEO, Pavel Durov believes that coding competitions are a better way to find talented engineers than the general question-answer sessions, rely on most firms.

In a recent discussion with Podcaster Lex Fridman, Durov explained why he thinks the competition model works best. “This is in line with my overall philosophy. I think the competition leads to progress,” he said. He said that such challenges allow developers to actually show what they can do instead of talking about their skills. “These competitions are the closest experiences of people while working in Telegram,” he said.

For Durov, the idea is also beyond the testing of knowledge. He feels that a competition gives Telegram an opportunity to present those who already use the app and understand its ecosystem. “For an employee of your company, what can be better than who has been a user?” He asked. By promoting competitions on Telegram, the company ensures that participants are included before the product is incorporated before the product, even before joining.

Russian-birth entrepreneurs have talked about this approach on many occasions. Earlier this year, in a conversation with Tucker Carlson, he revealed that Telegram regularly holds competitions on his own stage – sometimes every month or two months. The winners of these challenges are then considered to be at a place of about 30 engineers on Telegram’s small but centered team. According to Durov, this approach also removes the requirement of a large HR department. “We don’t need an HR department to find super-talented engineers,” he said.

The company has not only continued with this system, but has also taken bets. Its most recent competition held between June and July this year gave a salary of $ 1 million for the role of Android developer. Participants for the challenge were required to integrate a specific animation in Telegram’s open-source Android app. The winner will contribute not only with the job but also with his code directly to the future updates of the app.

Durov believes that both sides benefit in this format. On one hand, the Telegram identifies people who can distribute under pressure. On the other hand, the company collects some of the best solutions to real engineering problems. “We will not only choose the best person and rent this person. We will also choose the best solution to the problem,” he explained.

Interestingly, this practice completes dates before the creation of Telegram. Durov has said that he started hiring through coding competitions in 2007, when he was still running VK, the social media network that he launched in Russia. After leaving VK in 2014, he and his brother Nikolai went to establish Telegram, where the same darshan continues.

Telegram’s career page currently shows the opening in various roles from content moderation and translations to engineering and accounting. But for any person watching a technical role, the company makes it clear: winning the coding competition is the fastest way.