The problems with live coding interviews • Hacker News Board

Re: The problems with live coding interviews

#221

Post by Freire_Herval » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 9:06 PM UTC

beerpls wrote: post #220

Freire_Herval wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You’re saying people are weak and can’t enable change if they chose to behave a certain way and instead we need more governance and powers above us Yes, I am saying people in aggregate are fundamentally weak. Certain individuals can overcome weaknesses but in aggregate we can't. >I fundamentally don’t agree. It’s simple: prioritize dignity in yourself and the world will give it Then you fundamentally don't agree wit…

It’s not impossible, you’re just giving up and refusing to be a part of the solution The path of least resistance long run is demand dignity. The path of more resistance long term but ease short term is accept undignifying circumstances You can make your situation and the worlds better by doing the right thing. Or you can sit and argue to a stranger why it’s ‘impossible’ to tell a potential employer to pound sand whe…

>You can make your situation and the worlds better by doing the right thing.

Did you not read what I wrote? You or I both doing the right thing changes nothing.

Re: The problems with live coding interviews

#222

Post by alpinelogic » Mon, May 01, 2023, 12:47 AM UTC

eyear wrote: post #17

Google, Facebook, Amazon use it for a reason. And they are top engineering companies. Period.

I worked at one of the companies in your list and will tell you from experience that they've moved on from the old and tried process for many types of interviews. My technical process with them back in 2019 was:

1. Tech phone-screen: work through a simple but relevant to your job exercise (no leetcode stuff and code didn't need to run... i.e. could be pseudo code).

2. Take-home exercise: where I got the chance to write quality code at peace and a technical design doc describing my process and findings. I'm certain the take-home made up for 80% of the decision.

3. On-site: chatted with both engineers and non-engineers about the exercise, and how I would've approached new hypothetical but real-life requirements.

Everything past the take-home exercise mostly revolved around that exercise. If let's say I had cheated the whole exercise, I guarantee you it would've been evident immediately for many reasons – including the fact that when I was working on the exercise I discovered and reported a bug in their own production software.

Re: The problems with live coding interviews

#223

Post by beerpls » Tue, May 02, 2023, 4:57 AM UTC

Freire_Herval wrote: post #221

beerpls wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not impossible, you’re just giving up and refusing to be a part of the solution The path of least resistance long run is demand dignity. The path of more resistance long term but ease short term is accept undignifying circumstances You can make your situation and the worlds better by doing the right thing. Or you can sit and argue to a stranger why it’s ‘impossible’ to tell a potential employer to pound sand whe…

>You can make your situation and the worlds better by doing the right thing. Did you not read what I wrote? You or I both doing the right thing changes nothing.

People doing the right thing changes things. This isn’t about me reading it’s about you making a false claim repeatedly for some reason.

Re: The problems with live coding interviews

#224

Post by jamesgill » Thu, May 04, 2023, 3:56 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #194

8note wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get them all to roll three 6-sided dice, and pick the one with the largest sum

So we’re actually back to picking names out of a hat.

Have you tried picking names out of a hat, and comparing the results over time? I'm being serious.

Re: The problems with live coding interviews

#225

Post by emodendroket » Sat, May 06, 2023, 6:48 AM UTC

jamesgill wrote: post #224

emodendroket wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we’re actually back to picking names out of a hat.

Have you tried picking names out of a hat, and comparing the results over time? I'm being serious.

No, I'm not in a position to conduct such an experiment. Even if all the interview process does is identify people who were conscientious enough to prepare well, it doesn't seem unfair to me.

Re: The problems with live coding interviews

#226

Post by bennyelv » Tue, May 09, 2023, 8:27 AM UTC

gymbeaux wrote: post #218

dragonwriter wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t get why you have to prove your ability to do a job when you want them to pay you to do that job?

Yep. I realize that’s not going to resonate with many or even most people, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe it and that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have merit. Law firms don’t ask lawyers to litigate in a mock courtroom setting before hiring them. Hospitals don’t ask surgeons to perform a little test surgery on a person before hiring them. Engineers aren’t asked to build a bridge to prove they know how. I think the…

Law is a protected profession - you have to pass exams to be able to call yourself a Lawyer, and a law firm will verify that you have passed the relevant exams.

Same for medicine, engineering...

Any chump can call themselves a software engineer. That's the real problem here.