Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bug squash: An underrated interview question

blog.jez.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 282 posts

Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question

#111

Post by yonrg »

RomanPushkin wrote: post #101

The only downside I see is that I need to share my screen with a person I don't know. Don't get me wrong, but I normally have access to some crypto on my laptop, banking notifications turned on for my 2FAs, private messages I'm getting from my spouse, maybe some borderline NSFW chatgpt dialogs, screenshots of my ideas, emails, private notes, personal projects, whole bunch of tabs I am not willing to close or share, e…

True, this would discomfort me, too. Also in webconferences, I never share the full screen, only one window. This should be enough for bug squash as well.

Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question

#112

Post by b20000 »

ta_1138 wrote: post #96
b20000 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for me cracking the coding interview is stressful i prefer the bug squash question. i have 20 years of experience. i will probably do well. a fresh grad might fail. do i care? no. leetcode has benefited fresh grads and is being used to discriminate against those with anxiety and other disorders and those who are older. i think it is refreshing to try a different interview method, one that benefits those with experien…

I administered bug squash questions a few dozen times. Experience definitely trumped the smartest, most prepared young programmers, because no matter how much they studied, they hadn't really faced a real test suite in a large codebase. We had to rate them on a different scale, because otherwise very few of them passed.

why do young programmers need to pass? nobody gives a shit whether experienced people pass leetcode so give me one good reason why you should rate young programmers differently.

Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question

#113

Post by tdeck »

sk11001 wrote: post #100
vandyswa wrote: post #18

I've done the equivalent of this by asking them to describe an interesting bug they've encountered in past lives; how it came up, how they hunted it, how they fixed it. By listening to them describe the work, asking questions, and following their thought processes, you can come to a fairly good hire/no from this single walk-through. I know, it's short and humane, so not a good fit for current Sillycon Valley culture.

There’s no chance that I can come up with a good bug story on demand without any preparation.

For past experience I reviews like this it's a good idea to give the candidate advance notice.

Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question

#115

Post by tdeck »

RomanPushkin wrote: post #101

The only downside I see is that I need to share my screen with a person I don't know. Don't get me wrong, but I normally have access to some crypto on my laptop, banking notifications turned on for my 2FAs, private messages I'm getting from my spouse, maybe some borderline NSFW chatgpt dialogs, screenshots of my ideas, emails, private notes, personal projects, whole bunch of tabs I am not willing to close or share, e…

This is common in many interviews, not just "bug squash" interviews. I recommend having a plan for it if you're interviewing. Perhaps dedicate a virtual desktop to interviews if your system supports it.

Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question

#116

Post by Lvl999Noob »

vandyswa wrote: post #18

I've done the equivalent of this by asking them to describe an interesting bug they've encountered in past lives; how it came up, how they hunted it, how they fixed it. By listening to them describe the work, asking questions, and following their thought processes, you can come to a fairly good hire/no from this single walk-through. I know, it's short and humane, so not a good fit for current Sillycon Valley culture.

Live bug squash is better, imo. I was part of the production support at my $DAYJOB. My work was literally finding and squashing bugs all day. And yet, if you were to ask me for interesting stories, I won't be able to tell you anything. Maybe I'll remember the latest bug I solved but most of the time, once the bug is resolved, its off my mind. I will have to go through my jira and github history to first see which bugs I even worked on, then filter for the interesting ones and then try to remember the story instead of just the root cause.

Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question

#117

Post by RomanPushkin »

tdeck wrote: post #115
RomanPushkin wrote: post #101

The only downside I see is that I need to share my screen with a person I don't know. Don't get me wrong, but I normally have access to some crypto on my laptop, banking notifications turned on for my 2FAs, private messages I'm getting from my spouse, maybe some borderline NSFW chatgpt dialogs, screenshots of my ideas, emails, private notes, personal projects, whole bunch of tabs I am not willing to close or share, e…

This is common in many interviews, not just "bug squash" interviews. I recommend having a plan for it if you're interviewing. Perhaps dedicate a virtual desktop to interviews if your system supports it.

Thanks for recommendation. I just finished my rounds of interviews, gotten a decent offer (SF company), being 20 years in industry. I have my own rules, and luckily they align very well with industry standards. So I never had any issues not following the scenario when I need to share something to land a job. I also don't do any take-home assessments, and moreover, I only use one programming language while interviewing. Never had any issues with that.

I think I don't need a plan or virtual desktop. I just say "no" if it doesn't work for me. Unless I am really desperate, I do not share.

Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question

#118

Post by strken »

b20000 wrote: post #112
ta_1138 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I administered bug squash questions a few dozen times. Experience definitely trumped the smartest, most prepared young programmers, because no matter how much they studied, they hadn't really faced a real test suite in a large codebase. We had to rate them on a different scale, because otherwise very few of them passed.

why do young programmers need to pass? nobody gives a shit whether experienced people pass leetcode so give me one good reason why you should rate young programmers differently.

A) I, and a lot of other people, do give a shit whether experienced candidates pass leetcode, and try not to give leetcode interviews unless forced to by HR fiat

B) As an industry and as a society, it's not a good thing to refuse to hire new grads, since that leads to the kind of labour shortages we see in e.g. medicine and pulls up one of the best ladders for wealth mobility. Tech therefore needs some kind of funnel to evaluate candidates with less experience. A test that almost none of them can pass is not very useful for evaluation purposes

Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question

#119

Post by b20000 »

strken wrote: post #118
b20000 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why do young programmers need to pass? nobody gives a shit whether experienced people pass leetcode so give me one good reason why you should rate young programmers differently.

A) I, and a lot of other people, do give a shit whether experienced candidates pass leetcode, and try not to give leetcode interviews unless forced to by HR fiat B) As an industry and as a society, it's not a good thing to refuse to hire new grads, since that leads to the kind of labour shortages we see in e.g. medicine and pulls up one of the best ladders for wealth mobility. Tech therefore needs some kind of funnel…

it’s not a good thing to refuse to hire older people and most older people do not pass leetcode without significant grinding

Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question

#120

Post by ebcode »

yonrg wrote: post #109
b20000 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for me cracking the coding interview is stressful i prefer the bug squash question. i have 20 years of experience. i will probably do well. a fresh grad might fail. do i care? no. leetcode has benefited fresh grads and is being used to discriminate against those with anxiety and other disorders and those who are older. i think it is refreshing to try a different interview method, one that benefits those with experien…

What is wrong with capitals?

not wrong per se, but they take longer to type than lowercase
Post reply on HN