I think a prior study is needed in how job postings correlate to actual work. Once you have a stable initiating side from an academic standpoint you can begin to look at the receiving side of the equation.
Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
11–20 of 129 posts
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Easy: LOC / hour.
I really think this is best we got so far.
So the secret to being a 10X programmer is ":set tw=8" making your maximum line length 8 characters, forcing you be 10 times more productive than rival devs who're stuck at the old 80 character standard. Got it.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#13I don't know of any academic research, but Triplebyte is trying to understand this better. Their interview process involves a little of algo problems and pairing on hangouts. Also, there's no one size fits all theory. There are companies where every ms of time you save by writing a better algorithm makes a big difference and most where it doesn't matter. Take home assignments, pair programming have all been tried and…
Are a lot of jobs really algorithm development though? Every job I've had just used existing algorithm implementations for sorting, FFT, etc. I feel like to do well at software interviews I have to brush up on dynamic programming, sorting, greedy, etc. algo development even though I've almost never had to develop a serious performant algorithm on the job.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#14I don't know of any academic research, but Triplebyte is trying to understand this better. Their interview process involves a little of algo problems and pairing on hangouts. Also, there's no one size fits all theory. There are companies where every ms of time you save by writing a better algorithm makes a big difference and most where it doesn't matter. Take home assignments, pair programming have all been tried and…
>it seems to work fine
How do we know that? Interviewing is near a total crapshoot from what I can tell based on my 13 years of experience (~8 of which being actively involved in the process, 3 as a decision maker.) I have yet to find a method that weeds out people who can whiteboard, but can't deliver, or those who seem to have a great personality and work ethic, but stop showing up to work and/or throw tantrums when they don't get their way.
Obviously some people emit red flags like the Sun emits energy, but I'm I don't believe you can assume it's "working fine" without some baseline definition of "fine" and a corresponding study.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#15I don't know of any academic research, but Triplebyte is trying to understand this better. Their interview process involves a little of algo problems and pairing on hangouts. Also, there's no one size fits all theory. There are companies where every ms of time you save by writing a better algorithm makes a big difference and most where it doesn't matter. Take home assignments, pair programming have all been tried and…
Are a lot of jobs really algorithm development though? Every job I've had just used existing algorithm implementations for sorting, FFT, etc. I feel like to do well at software interviews I have to brush up on dynamic programming, sorting, greedy, etc. algo development even though I've almost never had to develop a serious performant algorithm on the job.
>Are a lot of jobs really algorithm development though
Probably not "a lot", but personally I have _only_ worked in companies where they are our bread and butter (Biotech and finance.)
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#16Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#17I don't know of any academic research, but Triplebyte is trying to understand this better. Their interview process involves a little of algo problems and pairing on hangouts. Also, there's no one size fits all theory. There are companies where every ms of time you save by writing a better algorithm makes a big difference and most where it doesn't matter. Take home assignments, pair programming have all been tried and…
Are a lot of jobs really algorithm development though? Every job I've had just used existing algorithm implementations for sorting, FFT, etc. I feel like to do well at software interviews I have to brush up on dynamic programming, sorting, greedy, etc. algo development even though I've almost never had to develop a serious performant algorithm on the job.
Companies tend to use algorithms for interviews for new college grads not because that's what the job entails, but because that reflects what the candidate's background was about (college).
If someone is fresh out of a 4 year program that was all about data structures, algorithms, operating systems, etc, then demonstrating mastery of those topics tells an employer that a person is smart and can learn large amounts of complex technical material.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#18I don't know of any academic research, but Triplebyte is trying to understand this better. Their interview process involves a little of algo problems and pairing on hangouts. Also, there's no one size fits all theory. There are companies where every ms of time you save by writing a better algorithm makes a big difference and most where it doesn't matter. Take home assignments, pair programming have all been tried and…
>it seems to work fine How do we know that? Interviewing is near a total crapshoot from what I can tell based on my 13 years of experience (~8 of which being actively involved in the process, 3 as a decision maker.) I have yet to find a method that weeds out people who can whiteboard, but can't deliver, or those who seem to have a great personality and work ethic, but stop showing up to work and/or throw tantrums whe…
> How do we know that?
Because businesses are still able to solve problems, service customers, etc. Of course, there is room for improvement.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#19Not software development, but professional schools (eg medical schools) have published research about which admission selection methods can have predictive value both in-school and as a clinician. Lots of long follow-up. I’ve seen some programs do away with references, resumes and even interviews. The programs that I’ve seen remove interviews usually did replace them with standardized stations with different scenario…
I haven't looked for any recent research in this area but when I saw some way back when it was, in one sense, somewhat depressing. I forget if it was for undergrad or MBA programs but, as I recall, the correlations were basically to SATs/GMATs and class rank/grades. Of course, your results will vary depending on how you define success but basically quantitative hard measures had the most predictive value.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#20To correlate with job success, you need to define and measure job success. A sub-question: How's the academic research into measuring programmer job success?
How about academic research into the value of academic research in programmer job success? I figure that eventually it'll be similar to the Voight-Kampff test and kept on file forever while being shared with all potential employers.
I think the baseline test from 2049 would be more appropriate:
"Because they have to kill their own kind, they constantly need to be assessed as to whether their work is having some kind of moral impact on them'"