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Ask HN: What should an ideal developer interview process look like?

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Re: Ask HN: What should an ideal developer interview process look like?

#171

Post by asdfokd8 »

For front-end positions, if I were interviewing myself, a 1 hour interview, as follows:

1. "Imagine you are building a simple Gmail clone (search header, sidebar, action navbar, main content area). Walk me through how you would approach and implement this." (20 minutes: What architecture choices do I make? What tradeoffs am I comfortable making with this? Do I ask questions about the audience? How do I handle state management? How do I approach tooling for this? How do I approach testing for this? Lots of specific questions along the way..)

2. "Tell me about an interesting article you read recently on a tech topic? Which resources do you use to stay current in the front-end space?" (10 minutes; Am I committed to learning and staying abreast on an ever-changing landscape. Can I impress me with quality resources I'm in tune to? Also, can I effectively convey ideas at a high level; can I critique it and walk around the topic from various vantage points.)

3. "Could you pull up your github and walk me through your last few public commits." (15 minutes: Gives me a chance to see my code, talk about the process of writing it? Are there tests? etc)

4. "Would you mind code reviewing this [FizzBuzz-like] code and tests? Then, what would your next iteration on it be?" (15 minutes; Am I a good team player? Can I communicate effectively? Can I spot areas for improvement?)

5. "Finally, could you provide me with a list of past/current co-workers" (0 minutes; With this I will be able to assess what my peers thought of me? Work ethic? Pleasure to work with? Ego? Best qualities? Shortcoming?)

I suppose if the first question is switched, this could be used for any position.

Re: Ask HN: What should an ideal developer interview process look like?

#172

Post by maccard »

oogali wrote: post #158
jgforbes wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also balked at it, but for the opposite reason. Everyone should be able to sit down to a terminal, make a change to a repository, and commit it. I mean even if you don't know the command (or they are using a different version control system then you are used to) you can always check the help or man page. It's still a trivial task.

I've encountered people who didn't know the concept of a man page exists, or that -h / -? / --help is a semi-standard construct. Yet they carried mid/senior-level titles. You should absolutely test for the things that you think are annoyingly trivial if this person is to be a close peer or a direct report, because your level of disappointment will be so much greater after that person becomes an employee. I define "an…

> I've encountered people who didn't know the concept of a man page exists, or that -h / -? / --help is a semi-standard construct.

I can count on one hand the number of times I've relied on man pages for descriptions. Using git as the example, compare https://man.cx/git-commit(1) to https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/saving-changes for someone who has never used version control. One of them talks about saving, with examples. The other talks about storing an index in a log.

> My personal opinion is Git definitely falls into that category.

There are plenty of developers with working knowledges of branching/merging workflows, version control, using visual tools, or non-git tools.

Re: Ask HN: What should an ideal developer interview process look like?

#173

Post by RandomNewGuy »

horatiocain wrote: post #68

Our Android dev task: write a login/signup dialog. Shows that you have layout skills, networking skills, general Java skills, etc. Candidates either bomb it or nail it, no mis-hires yet after about two years. You get a real good sense of experience level, confidence, and "I like clean code" attitude.

Interesting approach, away from all the CTCI bs. are you guys hiring?

Re: Ask HN: What should an ideal developer interview process look like?

#174

Post by raygelogic »

chrisseaton wrote: post #97
ldite wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With this approach you'll miss good senior people; I have dependants and very little free time outside work. Last time I was looking for a job I skipped everyone who wanted me to do prep/homework. If the other interviews hadn't worked out I'd have gone back to them, but I didn't need to.

> With this approach you'll miss good senior people Aren't you already spending many hours researching a job as the part of the process? Aren't you already taking a full day off work for the interviews? Why is that time all fine to spend, but not fine to spend a couple of hours on doing an assignment?

imagine trying to convince a sernior candidate to do your assignment, and imagine all the other offers she or he has who aren't asking that much of their free time. it's not about how much time it would take, it's about the other choices they have.

Re: Ask HN: What should an ideal developer interview process look like?

#175

Post by chrisseaton »

elbrian wrote: post #167
scarejunba wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Would you mind sharing in which country you work (or if America, which state), what your field of interest is, and how long you've been in the business? My team has full-day interviews and I'm curious to see who has been self-selecting out of this.

>My team has full-day interviews and I'm curious to see who has been self-selecting out of this. Anyone with any level of self-confidence, worth and respect.

To offer a counter-point, I have a level of self-confidence, worth and respect, I wouldn't join a company without a full day of interviewing with them to get an understanding for the company.

Re: Ask HN: What should an ideal developer interview process look like?

#176

Post by scarejunba »

ldite wrote: post #169
scarejunba wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Would you mind sharing in which country you work (or if America, which state), what your field of interest is, and how long you've been in the business? My team has full-day interviews and I'm curious to see who has been self-selecting out of this.

I'm the UK, 15-20 years experience, depending how you count it, and my skill-set is diverse :)

Thank you. I've definitely seen a greater resistance to the full day interview process when hiring in London. I never did learn to hire properly for London. I think there's a cultural difference between there and the Bay.

Re: Ask HN: What should an ideal developer interview process look like?

#177

Post by weliketocode »

Many people here will disagree with what I'm about to say, but if you're going to give a coding challenge...

I like hackerrank/codility style coding challenges.

gasp

They're timed. They're run against a standardized test suite. And they have support for many languages.

It's really unfortunate the number of companies that give custom take home coding challenges that run the gamut. The problems with which are manifold:

- Inconsistent technology and language choices by candidates

- Time spent varies wildly and is easily underestimated by companies - and 4-5 hours for an unpaid coding challenge in an early round with a company is a significant investment

- Good candidates will de-prioritize your company against others that move faster

I know that I only answered a small subset of the question, but it's very difficult to lump all developers together and come up with a single, wholistic, and ideal interview process. From the nature of the role (IC/Lead/Manager) to the technologies/specialty to the company's mission, the process will need to be customized to some degree.

However, do not think that your custom coding challenge will somehow be the perfect key to assessing developers.

Re: Ask HN: What should an ideal developer interview process look like?

#178

Post by sandos »

scarejunba wrote: post #153
ldite wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. I've never needed to research a job beyond a bit of Linkedin/glassdoor stalking and reading of corporate guff. I've never had a full day interview for a company I'd actually want to work for (based on what I've learned while grinding through the interviews) so I'm beginning to take requests for those (along with requests for advance coding exercises) as a recruiting smell.

Interesting. Would you mind sharing in which country you work (or if America, which state), what your field of interest is, and how long you've been in the business? My team has full-day interviews and I'm curious to see who has been self-selecting out of this.

Wow. I live in Sweden, and I have the same expectations: I would not really want to spend much time on an interview process, and I have never, ever heard of day-long interviews either!

We have had a perpetual shortage of developers though, it sounds much harder to land a job in the US.

Re: Ask HN: What should an ideal developer interview process look like?

#180

Post by shawn »

weliketocode wrote: post #177

Many people here will disagree with what I'm about to say, but if you're going to give a coding challenge... I like hackerrank/codility style coding challenges. gasp They're timed. They're run against a standardized test suite. And they have support for many languages. It's really unfortunate the number of companies that give custom take home coding challenges that run the gamut. The problems with which are manifold:…

Timed challenges rule out skilled hackers that do challenges to learn new things. (They do exist.)

It's often the funnest part of looking for a job.

From a comment below:

I was given a week to do it, but it only took me an hour or so to meet all of their explicit requirements. I liked that there was no time pressure in that regard.

Ditto.

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