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iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

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Re: iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

#21

Post by CameronBanga »

kalyan02 wrote: post #12

Majority of these questions seem to be Trivia, which can be looked up. I don't see any need to learn them. They are probably nice to know but are not helpful in objectively evaluating a developers iOS skills. The important thing while talking to candidates is evaluating their understanding of technical concepts - like multithreading, GCD vs NSOperations, application lifecycle, properties, references, blocks, memory m…

Understandable, I'm mostly a designer and so the first run I had a few questions like this sounded a little rough. Have a friend contributing and helping with these a bit, but still very early on this.

If you have any suggested questions, I would love to add them. If you don't wanna go through the PR, etc, my email is in my profile. Feel free to send over and I will add.

Re: iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

#22

Post by CameronBanga »

lazerwalker wrote: post #4

If you're in a situation where the best way you have to assess a candidate is to ask them questions, I'd recommend focusing on types of questions that open up room for discussion about how the candidate thinks and works rather than simply asking trivia questions about Apple's frameworks. In context of iOS/Obj-C/Cocoa, ask about MVC. Ask about delegates versus blocks versus notifications as mechanisms of communicating…

Great points. See here, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8828209, but if you have questions, I would love to add. Send over a PR or email them (email in profile).

Re: iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

#23

Post by nicktal »

CameronBanga, appreciate you sharing this! As a long-time iOS designer and developer, I appreciate you helping and effort in finding a great one.

I unfortunately think that all of your questions are at best, filtering questions to ensure they have base familiarity with pretty benign facts and at worse, questions that give no insight at all into iOS abilities. Your design questions are, in particular, extremely trivial and almost silly.

Feel free to reach-out to me if you'd like to collab on a better list.

Everyone else reading this, no even semi-serious iOS developer or designer would endorse these questions as a robust way to filter candidates or even teach yourself.

Re: iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

#24

Post by CameronBanga »

nicktal wrote: post #23

CameronBanga, appreciate you sharing this! As a long-time iOS designer and developer, I appreciate you helping and effort in finding a great one. I unfortunately think that all of your questions are at best, filtering questions to ensure they have base familiarity with pretty benign facts and at worse, questions that give no insight at all into iOS abilities. Your design questions are, in particular, extremely trivia…

Posted a link here, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8828209, explaining. This was a quick starting point for a friend and I, hoped a post here would encourage a person or two to help out, and seeing a huge unexpected response.

I am more than happy to accept any suggestions, I understand most are super trivial, I assume these as a starting point for any conversation, or as basically a few things that could help give someone an idea as to where to start.

PRs are appreciated, or feel free to just email me questions and I will add (email in profile). Create an issue and add there as well, and I will go ahead and work in. Whatever is easiest!

Thanks for all of the attention everyone. I know it's basic, but it's a start. Hopefully we can work to evolve it into a much more detailed document that a few of you can benefit from.

Re: iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

#25

Post by objclxt »

rentnorove wrote: post #6

> What's your favorite feature of Xcode? Bonus points if they laugh bitterly.

That question really needs to be flipped (this is true of any "what's your favorite feature of [x]?" style question). It's far better to ask "what would you change about Xcode / developing for iOS[1]", because anyone can recite features of a product - it's another thing to be asked to critically think about what you would actually change to make your life as a developer easier.

[1] NB: "Crash less" doesn't count as an answer for Xcode, correct as it may be...

Re: iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

#26

Post by eclipxe »

First of all, thank you for taking the time putting this together.

Next, this should be used as a good example of "types of questions not to ask in a technical interview".

These will give little insight into what a candidate actually knows other than random trivia. I've seen a lot of junior interviewers focus on these types of questions, to perilous results.

Re: iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

#27

Post by gsands »

kalyan02 wrote: post #12

Majority of these questions seem to be Trivia, which can be looked up. I don't see any need to learn them. They are probably nice to know but are not helpful in objectively evaluating a developers iOS skills. The important thing while talking to candidates is evaluating their understanding of technical concepts - like multithreading, GCD vs NSOperations, application lifecycle, properties, references, blocks, memory m…

I think part of the idea of interview questions like these is that it will get a developer into those finer points, if they are in a technical discussion.

Re: iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

#28

Post by gsands »

eclipxe wrote: post #26

First of all, thank you for taking the time putting this together. Next, this should be used as a good example of "types of questions not to ask in a technical interview". These will give little insight into what a candidate actually knows other than random trivia. I've seen a lot of junior interviewers focus on these types of questions, to perilous results.

I actually think high level questions like these are just conversation starters which can get into highly technical conversations quickly.

Sort of like the technologies themselves; GameCenter and CoreEverything are abstractions of lower level functionality. Being able to discuss their purpose, how to use them, and how to glue them together is what a good developer is. The rest is just syntax.

Re: iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

#29

Post by CameronBanga »

gsands wrote: post #28
eclipxe wrote: post #26

First of all, thank you for taking the time putting this together. Next, this should be used as a good example of "types of questions not to ask in a technical interview". These will give little insight into what a candidate actually knows other than random trivia. I've seen a lot of junior interviewers focus on these types of questions, to perilous results.

I actually think high level questions like these are just conversation starters which can get into highly technical conversations quickly. Sort of like the technologies themselves; GameCenter and CoreEverything are abstractions of lower level functionality. Being able to discuss their purpose, how to use them, and how to glue them together is what a good developer is. The rest is just syntax.

Moreover, I never see these questions as just being a one-by-one trivia list for applicants. More of just a thing to look over, see the technologies that your app may use, and then use these questions as kinda a way to launch discussion with an applicant to see how well the know their stuff.

Re: iOS Developer/Designer Interview Questions

#30

Post by tonyarnold »

flyosity wrote: post #18
CameronBanga wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understandable that these are mostly just trivia questions, my thought was that they should be a springboard (pun intended) for senior developers/managers prepping for a hiring interview, who may be a bit unsure as to what to ask. Any candidate who answered these in one sentence/work answers with little detail would definitely not be a strong candidate, IMO. But mostly a round up of "Here's some topics to maybe dive…

What would be an in-depth, wonderful answer to the question of "What's a navigation bar?"

A bar, that navigates.
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