People suck at technical interviews (2014)

Post by benhoyt » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 12:45 PM UTC

dfabulich wrote: post #21

skrebbel wrote: post #2

In all honesty, I'm not sure the author did a lot of interviewing. For example, > The famous fizzbuzz test simply asks "are you aware of the modulo operator?" Wait, what? No, it asks "can you write a for loop without breaking a sweat?". There's a rightfully vivid debate going on about the virtue of asking algorithmic questions in interviews, but fizzbuzz is hardly algorithmic. I'd wager that virtually all programmers…

>> The famous fizzbuzz test simply asks "are you aware of the modulo operator?" > Wait, what? No, it asks "can you write a for loop without breaking a sweat?". There are notorious cases where senior engineers with years of actual honest coding experience "fail" fizzbuzz. IMO, That happens in two ways: 1) Not knowing (forgotten?) what a modulus operator is, and trying to code one up from scratch with a for loop. This…

    def fizzbuzz_no_modulo():
        counter_three = 1
        counter_five = 1
        for i in range(1, 101):
            output = []
            if counter_three == 3:
                output.append('Fizz')
                counter_three = 0
            if counter_five == 5:
                output.append('Buzz')
                counter_five = 0
            if not output:
                output.append(str(i))
            print(''.join(output))
            counter_three += 1
            counter_five += 1

Post by efaref » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 12:50 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #90

hanginghyena wrote: post #76

Hiring Manager Perspective: Everyone lies, sorry. As a candidate, I hate technical interviews. For the reasons above. As the poor schmuck asked to make the hiring decision, however, I've learned that I can't live without them. My technical isn't complicated. A very basic SQL assignment (delivered to an audience which claims to know SQL) that is followed by a few broader database design / data process QA questions. En…

I hear you. I'm terrified by the kinds of interviews that want programming trivia. In the last three years I've never had to code a binary search tree. But I should be able to show you I'm very comfortable with Python.

Post by oblio » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 12:59 PM UTC

PuffinBlue wrote: post #100

mathgeek wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of "the photographs" in the analogy as the code that a full-time developer with a wife, kids, and non-coding hobbies has produced for his/her employer over the last five years. This person may produce a script or a basic website for a portfolio, but those 40+ hours a week spent coding at a full time job is where all of the real problems get solved.

> This person may produce a script or a basic website for a portfolio, but those 40+ hours a week spent coding at a full time job is where all of the real problems get solved. That's it right there. That's the bit that makes the difference. It speaks to an attitude of 'I'm doing it, I don't need to prove it'. It's wrapped up in 'I'm doing it and I'm too busy to prove it because I should have a life and other people s…

Post by efaref » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 1:02 PM UTC

imtringued wrote: post #108

skrebbel wrote: post #2

In all honesty, I'm not sure the author did a lot of interviewing. For example, > The famous fizzbuzz test simply asks "are you aware of the modulo operator?" Wait, what? No, it asks "can you write a for loop without breaking a sweat?". There's a rightfully vivid debate going on about the virtue of asking algorithmic questions in interviews, but fizzbuzz is hardly algorithmic. I'd wager that virtually all programmers…

The trick part of FizzBuzz is that the easiest solution relies on the magic "15".

Post by MrLeftHand » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 1:09 PM UTC

taneq wrote: post #111

MrLeftHand wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Potential Employee Perspective: they can't be serious!!! A lot of times a job spec contains a minimum of 10-15 skill you need to know. And that's just the modest one. Maybe employers should stop trying to find the non-existing 'developer rock-star' and people would stop lying. The funny thing is that even the developers themselves start to behave like that when they are on the other end of the hiring (Been there, don…

I think the laundry list interview happens most when you're hiring to replace someone. My last job is having that issue, we were an R&D team so we learned on the job. They're having an impossible time replacing any of us because to combine that specific skill set you basically have to have been on that team (or its twin) for a couple of years. What they should be looking for is just someone with good basic skills who…