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Ask HN: What % of your job interviewees pass FizzBuzz type questions?

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Re: Ask HN: What % of your job interviewees pass FizzBuzz type questions?

#31

Post by aplusbi »

I've never asked FizzBuzz but I do regularly ask coding/algorithm questions. They are usually more difficult than FizzBuzz. I'd say around 80-90% can at least come up with a solution in 45 minutes with some help. Probably less than 10% can come up with a good solution entirely on their own.

I attribute this to two things, first I think our phone screenings work well enough to keep out people who really can't do FizzBuzz, and second that I'm fairly generous during interviews. I often don't expect real code, sometimes I'm satisfied with just a discussion of the algorithm (no white board coding at all). I don't expect code to compile and I even let candidates use undefined "helper" functions (although I usually only allow that if I get the feeling that they could implement them if asked).

* For those that are curious I have two favorite questions - print out all the permutations of a given (ASCII) string and describe a search algorithm for a sorted array that has been split in two and the two pieces have been swapped (i.e. - 4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3).

Re: Ask HN: What % of your job interviewees pass FizzBuzz type questions?

#32

Post by pixeloution »

spamizbad wrote: post #27

4 candidates, 2 passed FizzBuzz. Oddly, the two that failed had a Masters in CS (albeit no BS in CS). Of those that passed: one had Masters in Library Science looking to change careers. The other was a fresh out of college CS major from Illinois State. Next batch, I think we'll add another trivial question: count the number of vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in a string.
Am I hired? Or do I lose cool points for PHP?

Re: Ask HN: What % of your job interviewees pass FizzBuzz type questions?

#33

Post by elliottcarlson »

I have used various interview questions, including FizzBuzz, factorials and other questions, and I would say the success rate I saw was about 20%. My personal favorite question is to have someone write a shuffle function without using any built in randomization functions - however most people give up, and others can't follow simple directions and wrap their head around the problem. This particular question had more of a 5 to 10% success rate.

Re: Ask HN: What % of your job interviewees pass FizzBuzz type questions?

#35

Post by hga »

kaybe wrote: post #23
hga wrote: post #17

The last time I was a part of this activity in a company (1997-8), using similarly rigorous pre-screening, we had about the same results, only 50% of the people we interviewed could program their way out of an (EDIT) wet paper bag.

How would I go about programming my way out of a paper bag? It creates the weirdest ideas and images in my mind.

Oops, although this won't help your mind ^_^, the correct expression is "... out of a wet paper bag". From more apropos usage about fighting or escaping from such a flimsy thing.

And now that you mention it, I have no idea either ^_^ ... except that it ought to be easy. In that last company where I was part of the hiring process I myself got the job only because I was the only one they interviewed who could pass their dry erase board tests (at the time they didn't have good pre-screening or access to a good candidate pool; I myself answered a want-ad). Tests that were to me so simple I barely remembered them (two decades of experience by then).

Re: Ask HN: What % of your job interviewees pass FizzBuzz type questions?

#36

Post by corin_ »

Can anyone explain how it is possible for people applying for these jobs to fail?

I dabble in code, but am no where near the level I would have to be to do any job in this area, I mean seriously. Took my two minutes to do it with a pen and paper in PHP, same with in JS, same in bash scripting.

How can anyone who isn't able to do this pretend to even have an interest, yet alone the ability to do the job?

Re: Ask HN: What % of your job interviewees pass FizzBuzz type questions?

#37

Post by aplusbi »

spamizbad wrote: post #27

4 candidates, 2 passed FizzBuzz. Oddly, the two that failed had a Masters in CS (albeit no BS in CS). Of those that passed: one had Masters in Library Science looking to change careers. The other was a fresh out of college CS major from Illinois State. Next batch, I think we'll add another trivial question: count the number of vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in a string.

I've been involved in a lot of interviewing/recruiting especially of recent graduates. I don't have hard numbers, but it seems to me that the candidates who have masters degrees tend to do worse.

Re: Ask HN: What % of your job interviewees pass FizzBuzz type questions?

#39

Post by woogley »

pixeloution wrote: post #32
spamizbad wrote: post #27

4 candidates, 2 passed FizzBuzz. Oddly, the two that failed had a Masters in CS (albeit no BS in CS). Of those that passed: one had Masters in Library Science looking to change careers. The other was a fresh out of college CS major from Illinois State. Next batch, I think we'll add another trivial question: count the number of vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in a string.

Am I hired? Or do I lose cool points for PHP?

Re: Ask HN: What % of your job interviewees pass FizzBuzz type questions?

#40

Post by [deleted] »

pixeloution wrote: post #32
spamizbad wrote: post #27

4 candidates, 2 passed FizzBuzz. Oddly, the two that failed had a Masters in CS (albeit no BS in CS). Of those that passed: one had Masters in Library Science looking to change careers. The other was a fresh out of college CS major from Illinois State. Next batch, I think we'll add another trivial question: count the number of vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in a string.

Am I hired? Or do I lose cool points for PHP?

[deleted]
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