The problem isn't with him, it's with programmers who have an inflated view of how smart you have to be to be a programmer. There are plenty of smart programmers, and there are plenty of problems that would benefit from smart programmers, but the vast majority of problems just need a spark of creativity and a lot of hard work from a person with a reasonable base of knowledge.
I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)
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Re: I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)
#52Google and Facebook long ago stopped asking (or at least now they discourage their interviewers from asking) puzzle-like questions in their SWE interviews.
Re: I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)
#53Someone else already commented that if you program then you're a programmer. I think that's really the only definition you should use. Everything else are just proxies, mostly bad ones, for if you're a good programmer or not.
Re: I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)
#54They asked a puzzle-y question you couldn't solve? Either their problems are puzzle-y, or they have terrible criteria for evaluating people; either way, do you really want to work there?
They asked a hard algorithmic problem, the kind that was someone's PhD thesis 30 years ago, and which you'd only get the optimal result to if you'd seen it before? Either they really do expect you to know stuff like that off the top of your head, or they expect you to behave a certain way when confronted with stuff you don't know; either way, do you really want to work in an environment with those kinds of expectations?
They asked you to code something hard withing a short time limit, and while you can code it, you failed the time limit; do you really want to work somewhere where speed is -the- criteria to optimize, rather than quality/maintainability/whatever (or at least where they're selecting for that rather than those other attributes)?
Etc.
In general, as others have said, if you program, you're a programmer. What specific roles you're a fit for is largely orthogonal to that.
If you don't pass a company's test, view it as having dodged a bullet, not having 'failed'; either they expect you to have something from day one that you don't have, or they are terrible at testing for what they really want, and so their culture, codebase, etc, is likely miserable. In neither case do you want to work for them.
You want to work for a place whose expectations for what you have on day one fits what you actually have (whatever they may be), -and- whose interview process tests for that (even if it's a little flaky), so both you and they can expect, going into the job, that you can handle it.
Remember, too, that there are false positives and false negatives even when they're testing specifically for what they want. Failure to figure out a puzzle doesn't even mean the person isn't good at figuring out puzzles; just that in this case, in this contrived, high stress set of circumstances (an interview), they were unable to come up with an answer in the time limit.
Re: I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)
#55I also like figuring out and implementing the right algorithms for a problem, but it's a pretty small part of what I do at work, and if it's complex, it's something I like to take some time to think through and sometimes read up on to make sure I really understand what I'm getting into, so I really don't like playing the logic puzzle games they use in interviews at some places. Being quick with an algorithmic answer is a nice skill, but being a good programmer is a craft that involves more than cleverness with algorithms.
Re: I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)
#56So, since it is not the case that loving jigsaw puzzles implies "ability and desire to be a programmer", then the fact that you hate jigsaw puzzles implies nothing with respect to your status as a programmer.
Re: I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)
#57> I’ve been programming for 18 years now. Then congratulations, you are a programmer! Despite what you'll hear from people peddling various flavors of Kool-Aid, "programmer" isn't a personality type. It's a job description. If you program, you are a programmer, end of line, full stop. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
I think there are categories, and we haven't figured out what to call them yet or how to define them. I see archetypes emerging over the years, and patterns. I've worked with career programmers that are done at 5:00pm, and never crack a book. They work fine in their niche, and when layoff come, they're working tech support. I know others that love problems but can't seem to make their ideas become manifest, yet kludg…
Re: I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)
#58> I’ve been programming for 18 years now. Then congratulations, you are a programmer! Despite what you'll hear from people peddling various flavors of Kool-Aid, "programmer" isn't a personality type. It's a job description. If you program, you are a programmer, end of line, full stop. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
Exactly this This also applies to: - Having a Github page - Contributing to Open Source Projects - Knowing (or not) a certain language - Knowing (or not) a certain technology - Knowing one of the latest fads Of course, this affects whether you can work on certain projects or not, but not that "every programmer knows that" is a fallacy (except for something really fundamental)
Re: I Hate Puzzles: Am I Still a Programmer? (2011)
#59> I’ve been programming for 18 years now. Then congratulations, you are a programmer! Despite what you'll hear from people peddling various flavors of Kool-Aid, "programmer" isn't a personality type. It's a job description. If you program, you are a programmer, end of line, full stop. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
This. So much this. I'm a programmer who loves 'building the brain'. I've been coding professionally for about 16 years. I've written some code I'm really proud of. A couple of specific pieces of code are actually used in a LOT of major websites you probably use. Like almost every health care site or major retailer site. I actually find most code written by 'whiz' startups - even successful ones - to be incredibly si…