11–20 of 35 posts
The most effective way to filter on raw IQ would be to... filter on raw IQ. But that's illegal.
Start with 7 billion humans, then reduce to the set of those with at least the target IQ. Are there enough people in the world to make this work? How about after subtracting people who don't do that kind of work or don't speak the right languages? Or they're in the wrong country and won't move. Or they're at some other employer. Keep subtracting from the pool and see who's left.
If your company is bigger than the number you get after this filtering, then you aren't really filtering that way. You just think you are.
Ignoring the not-so-thinly-veiled-advertisement. The premise is wrong. Companies optimize for a lot more than raw IQ (company fit, engineering skills, response to criticism and pressure etc.) Humans can also get better a solving problems like he presents. It's not about memorizing test cases, it is about developing heuristics and noticing patterns - something humans are actually very good at. If you practice you will…
Why "response to criticism" - is that prevalent in your corporate culture? Sounds like a great reason to walk out of an interview.
In any large culture people will constantly tell you you are going about something the wrong way, it is simply in the nature of large cultures. It is the job of any professional engineer to compile notes, listen and react appropriately to this. Sometimes the other people don't have the whole story, or are simply just wrong...other times they know something you don't and you have to be willing to scrap what you were doing and go back to the drawing board - with a new contact and fresh information.
This post is a mischaracterization of why tech companies as basic coding questions. Or at least Microsoft, where I learned to interview and coached my own team of interviewers over several years. 1) Basic coding questions are a nice filter. If you can't remove an element from a doubly-linked list in C on a whiteboard immediately after graduating, what were you doing the last four/five years? It's like the height sign…
I remember what a doubly linked list is but I wouldn't remember C well enough to pass the test. Does that make me a bad programmer?
> point 2)
Depending on the position, this might or might not matter. If you are modeling high level concepts in functional languages for example, does it really matter if you don't know what a logic gate is or how processes are scheduled?
> point 3)
Agreed.
I would say whatever questions you chose, it will only filter out for a certain type of programmer. Your questions are most likely targeted at C/C++ systems programmers.
This post is a mischaracterization of why tech companies as basic coding questions. Or at least Microsoft, where I learned to interview and coached my own team of interviewers over several years. 1) Basic coding questions are a nice filter. If you can't remove an element from a doubly-linked list in C on a whiteboard immediately after graduating, what were you doing the last four/five years? It's like the height sign…
> point 1) I remember what a doubly linked list is but I wouldn't remember C well enough to pass the test. Does that make me a bad programmer? > point 2) Depending on the position, this might or might not matter. If you are modeling high level concepts in functional languages for example, does it really matter if you don't know what a logic gate is or how processes are scheduled? > point 3) Agreed. I would say whatev…
Unless the position was for a C role, Most people would accept psuedo code, or help you along with enough syntax to get you through.
And yet, skilled players are substantially better than unskilled players. They also tend to be formidably intelligent people, but any game may be gamed.
Remember that writing maintainable code is also about communicating an idea -- knowing how to pick the right word to describe a variable or function -- knowing how to document your code succinctly, are critical and have a significant effect on a company's bottom line in the long-run.
Furthermore, you want to hire someone who will not negatively affect the productivity of his coworkers with his attitude. He must be able to work productively in a team setting.
This post is a mischaracterization of why tech companies as basic coding questions. Or at least Microsoft, where I learned to interview and coached my own team of interviewers over several years. 1) Basic coding questions are a nice filter. If you can't remove an element from a doubly-linked list in C on a whiteboard immediately after graduating, what were you doing the last four/five years? It's like the height sign…
> point 1) I remember what a doubly linked list is but I wouldn't remember C well enough to pass the test. Does that make me a bad programmer? > point 2) Depending on the position, this might or might not matter. If you are modeling high level concepts in functional languages for example, does it really matter if you don't know what a logic gate is or how processes are scheduled? > point 3) Agreed. I would say whatev…