Parallax Tic-Tac-Toe - Technical Test

Time allowed: 2 hours

Step 1 - Planning (30 minutes)

On an internal hack day, your team is tasked with creating a classic game, 'Parallax Tic-Tac-Toe'. Your team has decided to split in half, with half of the team diving straight into coding a proof-of-concept, and the other half planning it out. You're in the planning group.

Task: Using the whiteboard, plan how you would build the game, discussing your thinking with us as you go. Feel free to write pseudo code.

Requirements

• The game will have 2 players: X and O
• The game is played on a 3x3 grid
• Players take turns clicking on an empty cell to place their mark
• A player wins if they have three of their marks in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row
• If all cells are filled and no player has three marks in a row, the game is a draw
• The UI must clearly indicate the current player's turn
• The UI must clearly indicate the winner or if the game is a draw
• A "Reset Game" button must allow starting a new game at any time

Extra notes:

• X always starts the game by default

Deliverables

• Create a <Status /> component to display the current player, winner, or draw state.
• Interactive 3x3 grid using React and Tailwind CSS. UI polish is secondary to correctness.
• Turn management logic ensuring players cannot play out of turn or on occupied cells.
• Win and Draw detection logic.
• Once a game is complete, the UI must show the result and prevent further moves.

Step 2 - Implementation (1 hour)

Planning is done, you have a good feel for the game's mechanics. Your colleague has made some excellent progress.

Task: Use your knowledge of the game to review your colleague's code and help them finish it off, without using AI.

Note: Whilst you can't use AI generative coding, you can still use search engines at any time.

Step 3 - Finish the project, then add new Features, using AI (30 minutes)

Use AI to finish the project and discuss AI's changes with us.

Note: First 10 minutes with just Copilot, then full use of AI after that.

If you have time, choose from the following features to implement using AI:

1. Add a score counter for Player X and Player O that persists across resets
2. Add a "Undo Last Move" button
3. Randomizer button to select who has the first turn
4. Add a simple AI opponent for single-player mode
5. Revert back to any move in the game using a move history list