Would love for others to share non-technical questions that can filter bad candidates!
Bug squash: An underrated interview question
131–140 of 282 posts
Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question
#132My favourite thing to do for "coding" interviews is to give the candidate a piece of absolutely awful python code that a friend of mine came up with for use for interviews. There are code smells, side effects, errors, confusing syntax, a whole slew of things in it. I give them the code, tell them I'll help with every bit of python syntax (and really emphasise that I don't mark people down _at all_ for any lack of fam…
Right... Python.. Its syntax is so ugly. So I guess you can have really awful gems there with hidden bugs :)
I myself, shoot myself in a foot once doing Python code. I declared variable called 'len' and boom! What an interesting failure mode the script had. Took me a while to figure it out.
Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, what?
Per letter, capitalization doesn't take much longer, but over the course of an entire sentence or paragraph, having to reach for shift can potentially add up. Sure, it's still small overall, but I think it's reasonable to give the benefit of the doubt to a stranger about whether the extra effort for them to type them is more than the amount of extra effort for you to read it.
It doesn't take longer for me as I have both of my hands on my keyboard and I can hold the Shift without any delay (or noticeable delay), simultaneously. You could even use "caps lock" in which case you wouldn't have to use shift at all.
Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question
#134Earlier 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?
What's wrong with contractions?
Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question
#135I like this idea but I'm curious how others would implement it. Does the developer have to write the failing test themselves? Are they instructed to do it first, or is that behaviour worthy of bonus points? (Most write a passing test afterwards, which is worse).
> I’ve seen candidates wield their text editor like it was an extension of their fingertips.
So am I allowed to install my own text editor and other tools (Emacs with my own config that requires some build time)? Or is it on my own laptop (I don't have one)? It seems unfair if some candidates get to use their favourite tools and others don't.
Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question
#136I've only had one "find the bug" interview, and it was awful: - Didn't set you up with a way to reliably run/test the code, nor a step-through-debugger which, jeez is it 1980? Like setting up a repo in a language you aren't familiar with (say getting your py-env exactly right) can take a whole hour if it's not your main language. - Didn't have standardized questions, which is hugely problematic (some bugs are 2 order…
> - Didn't set you up with a way to reliably run/test the code, nor a step-through-debugger which, jeez is it 1980? Like setting up a repo in a language you aren't familiar with (say getting your py-env exactly right) can take a whole hour if it's not your main language. How frequently do people interview in a language other than their "main" one(s)? > - Didn't have standardized questions, which is hugely problematic…
> setting up a repo in a language [...] can take a whole hour if it's not your main language.
Even if it is your main language.
Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
I don't think replacing an interview that fails older people that instead fails younger people is a good solution.
Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question
#138I have an interview question: step 1: the candidate is shown the specification for a method and the results of running the test suite on an obfuscated version of the method. All tests pass. The test suite is minimal, and test coverage is abysmal. step 2: the candidate is asked to come up with more test cases, based on the specification. The code is run against the updated test suite - most new tests will fail because…
Curious if any interviewee has tried to unobfuscate the code.
Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question
#139I've only had one "find the bug" interview, and it was awful: - Didn't set you up with a way to reliably run/test the code, nor a step-through-debugger which, jeez is it 1980? Like setting up a repo in a language you aren't familiar with (say getting your py-env exactly right) can take a whole hour if it's not your main language. - Didn't have standardized questions, which is hugely problematic (some bugs are 2 order…
> - Didn't set you up with a way to reliably run/test the code, nor a step-through-debugger which, jeez is it 1980? Like setting up a repo in a language you aren't familiar with (say getting your py-env exactly right) can take a whole hour if it's not your main language. How frequently do people interview in a language other than their "main" one(s)? > - Didn't have standardized questions, which is hugely problematic…
> How frequently do people interview in a language other than their "main" one(s)?
A lot of companies have a set of "standard" interview languages like Java or C++ that may not be used by the role that is being hired for.
Re: Bug squash: An underrated interview question
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point of the interview is not to answer "Can this candidate find and fix this bug?" but rather "what is the candidate's approach to fixing unknown problems?" A good performance looks like making a hypothesis for where the bug is, testing that hypothesis, and repeatedly narrowing in closer and closer. Finding and fixing the bug is irrelevant! A bad performance might look like - running out of hypotheses for what m…
So like trial & error? Modify, compile, run?
That could be one way to approach this, yes