wbreeze / ttt

Tic-tac-toe interview assignment

Tic-tac-toe

Play Tic-tac-toe from the terminal, against the computer.

Usage

In order to run the program, from a command line with Ruby and RubyGems available:

> ./bin/ttt

or to install and run it:

> gem build ttt_dclovell.gemspec
> gem install ttt_dclovell-#.#.#.gem
> ttt

Original task description

Your task is to write a program to play tic-tac-toe in the terminal. When the program is invoked, it must let the user pick whether to play as X or O, and then run through the game letting the user play against the computer. When it is the user's turn, you must display the current state of the board and give the user a choice of which square to play next. The game must stop when one player wins or when the board is full.

A typical session might look like this:

$ ./bin/ttt

Which player do you want to be? X or O?
O

          A   B   C

        +---+---+---+
    1   | X |   |   |
        +---+---+---+
    2   |   |   |   |
        +---+---+---+
    3   |   |   |   |
        +---+---+---+

Where do you want to move?
B2

          A   B   C

        +---+---+---+
    1   | X |   |   |
        +---+---+---+
    2   |   | O |   |
        +---+---+---+
    3   |   | X |   |
        +---+---+---+

Where do you want to move?
A3

          A   B   C

        +---+---+---+
    1   | X | X |   |
        +---+---+---+
    2   |   | O |   |
        +---+---+---+
    3   | O | X |   |
        +---+---+---+

Where do you want to move?
C1

          A   B   C

        +---+---+---+
    1   | X | X | O |
        +---+---+---+
    2   |   | O |   |
        +---+---+---+
    3   | O | X |   |
        +---+---+---+

O has won!

You are free to write the program however you like, and use any language, libraries and tools you think might be useful.

You should aim to write code that you would be happy to put into production and have other people maintain; we would rather see you write maintainable code than a messy but complete program.

If you are subsequently invited in for interview then we may discuss your solution with you. With this in mind you may wish to take brief notes as you work to aid your memory at a later date.

Good luck :)