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Ask HN: What's your speciality, and what's your "FizzBuzz" equivalent?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your speciality, and what's your "FizzBuzz" equivalent?

#101

Post by noblethrasher »

ColinWright wrote: post #4

I'm a mathematician, and sometimes I need to assess the level at which I'll pitch an explanation. Although I don't do this in a setting where it's possible to set a test, as such, I do ask this question: An equivalence relation is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive. If E is an equivalence relation, and we know E(x,y) but we know !E(y,z), what do we know about E(x,z), and why? It seems a great filter for people who…

x is "near" y and y is near x. y is not near z, so z is not near y, and therefore z is not near x nor is x near z.

Re: Ask HN: What's your speciality, and what's your "FizzBuzz" equivalent?

#102

Post by chime »

talmand wrote: post #55

I build web sites. I would ask that the person complete a series of tasks that involved using Javascript to do a bit a typical DOM manipulations and CSS changes, especially using transitions and whatnot... ...without jQuery.

Why?

Re: Ask HN: What's your speciality, and what's your "FizzBuzz" equivalent?

#104

Post by sauerbraten »

ColinWright wrote: post #4

I'm a mathematician, and sometimes I need to assess the level at which I'll pitch an explanation. Although I don't do this in a setting where it's possible to set a test, as such, I do ask this question: An equivalence relation is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive. If E is an equivalence relation, and we know E(x,y) but we know !E(y,z), what do we know about E(x,z), and why? It seems a great filter for people who…

When !E(y,z), then also !E(z,y) (because symmetry). Also, E(y,x).

Thus !E(x,z), because E(y,x) and E(x,z) would imply E(y,z), which is false.

Re: Ask HN: What's your speciality, and what's your "FizzBuzz" equivalent?

#105

Post by dmd »

martingoodson wrote: post #49

For a data scientist I ask "what's a p-value?" Both Junior and senior candidates often get this wrong. The only difference is that senior people bristle at such a simple question before also getting it wrong.

Ok, now I'm confused, because I was under the impression that this is the first thing I ever learned in statistics - that a p value is how likely it is that a value created by chance would have been as extreme as the one the experiment gave. Is this wrong?

Re: Ask HN: What's your speciality, and what's your "FizzBuzz" equivalent?

#107

Post by thomaslangston »

ShellfishMeme wrote: post #57
solox3 wrote: post #11

Working for a web company. Our favourite JS question is, "What happens if you do this?" var func = function func () { // blah };

The variable declaration is hoisted to the top, then is assigned a named function expression `func` so that `func.name === 'func'`. Useful for proper error messages and stack traces. Something else I'm missing?

Could you go into more detail about why you would do A)

  var func = function func() { /* blah */ };
Instead of B)

  function func() { /* blah */ };

Re: Ask HN: What's your speciality, and what's your "FizzBuzz" equivalent?

#108

Post by solox3 »

hacknat wrote: post #22
solox3 wrote: post #11

Working for a web company. Our favourite JS question is, "What happens if you do this?" var func = function func () { // blah };

This is a bad FizzBuzz question, in my opinion.

It's one of those questions that provoke the most thought, allow granular benchmarking of the interviewee's knowledge, and have a valid answer, in my opinion.

That is to say, this question has worked for us as a dev house, maybe not so much if you're hiring contractors, I can't say for sure.

Re: Ask HN: What's your speciality, and what's your "FizzBuzz" equivalent?

#109

Post by X4 »

zdw wrote: post #70

For sysadmin/ops jobs, I want to see debugging ability in addition to programming skill. I usually ask about HTTP and DNS (for web-focused) or Kerberos/AD logins (for user focused). There are a lot of moving parts to either of these, so a question like: "You type a web address into a browser, it doesn't load" can turn into questions about the DNS resolver process, system and network config, split horizon, time setup,…

These are questions I remember being asked. But they also asked what experience with servers I have and stuff..

     * At which layer things are in the OSI model.

     * How to reset AD user passwords.

     * What different kinds of servers are for.

     * Access port 25 in VLAN1 but not VLAN2 using port forwarding in the firewall

      * What ways of securing a DMZ are available in emergencies.

Re: Ask HN: What's your speciality, and what's your "FizzBuzz" equivalent?

#110

Post by silentOpen »

crntaylor wrote: post #97
jbermudes wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should I parse it as tossing the same coin 10 times, or choosing from the jar 10 times?

Good question, and one that sometimes comes up when I ask it in interviews. You are tossing the same coin 10 times.

0.5005?
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