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How to conduct a good programming interview

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Re: How to conduct a good programming interview

#11

Post by bostik »

A year ago I wrote a (shorter) post on the same topic: https://smarketshq.com/notes-on-interviewing-engineers-a4fa4...

A reasonable question should never require the candidate to know "just a single trick". Questions that require to combine approaches are far better - they can actually measure if the interviewee can reason about the problem and identify the points for trade-offs.

Btw: if you're interviewing more senior candidates, a code review question is often a good idea. It turns the situation around, from "how do you build this?" to "how would you fix this?"

Re: How to conduct a good programming interview

#12

Post by mousa »

wjossey wrote: post #6
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #2

While there are a variety of ways you can conduct a programming interview, the goals typically are the same: Will the candidate be able to write working code if they join the team? Can the candidate discuss code and problems with the people they'll be working with? Can the candidate reason about arbitrary problems and constraints? Is the candidate someone we would enjoy working with? All of these can be solved direct…

I also agree. As someone who has recently co-founded a startup, this is something my co-founder and I have spent a lot of discussing and exploring. My personal experience with this style of interview was that it really helped me to personally demonstrate my abilities. I was interviewing at a startup in San Francisco in 2012 who wanted me to do a quick version of "battleship" as part of their hiring exercise. I propos…

Can't really blame him, it might seem kind of arrogant to refuse to do the task they give and propose one yourself, although it is pretty impressive that you could do something useful on a codebase you haven't seen during the code interview.

Re: How to conduct a good programming interview

#13

Post by baddox »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #2

While there are a variety of ways you can conduct a programming interview, the goals typically are the same: Will the candidate be able to write working code if they join the team? Can the candidate discuss code and problems with the people they'll be working with? Can the candidate reason about arbitrary problems and constraints? Is the candidate someone we would enjoy working with? All of these can be solved direct…

You can still simulate that within the more standard interview process. Pick a real bug or small task in your codebase and give that to every candidate. Obviously you'll want to complete the task for real in your codebase, so just keep an interview branch in your source control.

Re: How to conduct a good programming interview

#14

Post by sillysaurus3 »

wjossey wrote: post #6
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #2

While there are a variety of ways you can conduct a programming interview, the goals typically are the same: Will the candidate be able to write working code if they join the team? Can the candidate discuss code and problems with the people they'll be working with? Can the candidate reason about arbitrary problems and constraints? Is the candidate someone we would enjoy working with? All of these can be solved direct…

I also agree. As someone who has recently co-founded a startup, this is something my co-founder and I have spent a lot of discussing and exploring. My personal experience with this style of interview was that it really helped me to personally demonstrate my abilities. I was interviewing at a startup in San Francisco in 2012 who wanted me to do a quick version of "battleship" as part of their hiring exercise. I propos…

It's unfortunate, isn't it? We spend all this time constructing artificial tests when the real thing is all that matters.

Re: How to conduct a good programming interview

#15

Post by jghn »

thiscatis2 wrote: post #4

So reading over some of the questions posted on technical programming interviews I must say that I would definitely fail such an interview without studying for it for a month first. Having recently discussed job interviews of ex-colleagues that went to EBay, Facebook, Google, etc.. I wouldn't even pass the whiteboard test. However I'm shipping scaleable API's used by web and native apps, using Continuous Integration…

This is something which has vexed me for ages. I would fail most contemporary software interviews. I personally don't view myself as a great developer but whenever I make comments like "I would fail most contemporary software interviews" people who have worked with me swear that I must be full of it. Perhaps they're just being nice.

I'm pretty sure I'd fail the current software interview at my company, yet I remain gainfully employed there without issue. It's not like I'm just scraping by either, I do well for myself there.

Luckily I enjoy my current job as the thought of going through these interviews and constantly failing miserably frightens the hell out of me. Part of the problem is that I refuse to study for months just so that I can pass some interviews and then promptly forget all of that stuff I just studied. That's just silly.

I don't know what this means for our industry, and it's not like I have any better ideas, not reasonable ones at least.

Re: How to conduct a good programming interview

#16

Post by baddox »

kevmo314 wrote: post #5

> If you ask the candidate the define the requirements for the task you're going to give them, you can't be surprised if the candidate imagines a use case with entirely different requirements from what you expected! This section really resonated with me. I've had a few interviews where I came up with a different answer than what the interviewer expected and this resulted in a lot of tension, as the interviewer assert…

I love interview horror stories! In my most recent job search, which was early this year, I debated with one interviewer whether checking for key existence in a hash was a constant time operation. I insisted it was, and the interviewer insisted otherwise with the same amount of conviction. That was just a small portion of an all-day onsite interview. After leaving, I was told they were looking for a more senior candidate. I was not upset.

Re: How to conduct a good programming interview

#17

Post by [deleted] »

perfmode wrote: post #10
thiscatis2 wrote: post #4

So reading over some of the questions posted on technical programming interviews I must say that I would definitely fail such an interview without studying for it for a month first. Having recently discussed job interviews of ex-colleagues that went to EBay, Facebook, Google, etc.. I wouldn't even pass the whiteboard test. However I'm shipping scaleable API's used by web and native apps, using Continuous Integration…

Many large organizations want their engineers to have the algorithmic ability and their technical project managers and engineering managers to have the strengths you describe. Technical leads who possess both bridge the gap.

[deleted]

Re: How to conduct a good programming interview

#18

Post by sillysaurus3 »

morgante wrote: post #9
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #2

While there are a variety of ways you can conduct a programming interview, the goals typically are the same: Will the candidate be able to write working code if they join the team? Can the candidate discuss code and problems with the people they'll be working with? Can the candidate reason about arbitrary problems and constraints? Is the candidate someone we would enjoy working with? All of these can be solved direct…

I used to think that, but honestly after recently going through a job search I think it's untenable for most scenarios. As a candidate, I want to be able to interview with multiple companies simultaneously—if I had to do a trial week with each company, I'd never be able to get multiple parallel offers. There's also significant onboarding complexity which I hadn't factored in. One company had me do a trial period and…

True enough, but it sounds like the above model isn't for you. It's for everyone who is talented but doesn't have the option to go interview with multiple companies simultaneously. Most devs are in that position.

I'd much rather commit to a single company that I want to work at and do this process to put me ahead of the other candidates. But that's not a decision that everyone feels the same about.

Re: How to conduct a good programming interview

#20

Post by EGreg »

jghn wrote: post #15
thiscatis2 wrote: post #4

So reading over some of the questions posted on technical programming interviews I must say that I would definitely fail such an interview without studying for it for a month first. Having recently discussed job interviews of ex-colleagues that went to EBay, Facebook, Google, etc.. I wouldn't even pass the whiteboard test. However I'm shipping scaleable API's used by web and native apps, using Continuous Integration…

This is something which has vexed me for ages. I would fail most contemporary software interviews. I personally don't view myself as a great developer but whenever I make comments like "I would fail most contemporary software interviews" people who have worked with me swear that I must be full of it. Perhaps they're just being nice. I'm pretty sure I'd fail the current software interview at my company, yet I remain g…

This may be like "approach anxiety" for when guys never strike up a conversation with a woman they are interested in because they think all women will reject them. Why not try and go on some interviews? How can you possibly know you will be rejected without even going on one interview? Do you think all companies are the same, and your competition is all prepared for whatever it is you imagine they are doing? You're shadowboxing without ever getting in the ring.
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