Worst interview questions for software developers • Hacker News Board

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#51

Post by heavyset_go » Sun, Jan 01, 2023, 1:51 AM UTC

chronsk830 wrote: post #36

heavyset_go wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've laughed in potential employers' faces when they said they expect 50 to 60 hour weeks from their hires. It just reeks of entitlement.

> I've laughed in potential employers' faces when they said they expect 50 to 60 hour weeks from their hires. Quant finance companies expect employees to work 60-80 hours per week. But then again, they pay 400-500K USD to 22 year old new grads.

These were startups who were not making up for the long hours with financial compensation. They just felt that they were entitled to cheap labor that doesn't value their time.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#52

Post by foreverCarlos » Sun, Jan 01, 2023, 1:52 AM UTC

cebert wrote: post #47

I would much rather have these questions than go thru the LeetCode grinder. Without spending significant prep time, you can’t get through the grinder. For most software developers, the grinder isn’t actually representative of how we work.

Yes but in reality this is in addition to 3 leetcode grinder interviews.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#53

Post by rzzzt » Sun, Jan 01, 2023, 1:52 AM UTC

xyzelement wrote: post #10

#10 is a measurement of ability to mentally model and estimate problems. Relevant to engineering ability. #8 measures self-awareness. Many people can answer this question with "I know I could be much better at X and I am working on it" which is what it's about.

Do recruiters have up-to-date information on the number of piano tuners in NYC? How do they verify the answer?

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#54

Post by FatActor » Sun, Jan 01, 2023, 1:53 AM UTC

Biggest problem is any of these can be rehearsed and the best interviews are spontaneous ones where the person opens up into uncharted authentic territory vs canned responses.

Of these, I've only been asked questions 5-9 back circa 1990 when I was just starting out and the "where do you see yourself in 5 years" and "what are your strengths/weaknesses" were ubiquitous. Something must have happened in HR world in the 2000's because interviewers stopped asking these questions even thought I was still hiring for dev positions so maybe a memo went out or possibly the internet was blowing up. By the 2010's I was 20+ years into my career and at that point your CV speaks for itself and they just want to know if you are going to be behaviorally difficult person. Interviewing very senior people is a much more difficile proposition.

When I was 20 (cusp of 21) and hiring for internships my mentor told me the answer to "where do you want to be" should be "in your seat" but I my mentor was so old he didn't understand the concept of HR people giving the first interview lolololol.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#55

Post by Blackstrat » Sun, Jan 01, 2023, 2:00 AM UTC

Having interviewed innumerable candidates for software development roles, I seldom used anything resembling these questions. If the candidate had relevant domain knowledge, e.g., financial apps, we’d talk about that. If not, how did that person go about acquiring the relevant knowledge. Same on the development platform. If they weren’t experienced with our suite of technologies, how do they approach learning it. What were they reading currently? Some answers were disqualifying. The most extreme case being an individual who said he was reading “Shades of Gray”. When I clarified that I only cared about technical material, he replied that he only read technical material on the job, not after hours. Pass. Who/what was their favorite development source? Assuming they were good prospects, possibly they would be subjected to more in depth technical interviews with senior staff. Generally, we hired for talent not specific skill sets. As such, we had relatively long tenures with excellent productivity and quality. I considered pure behavioral interviewing to be a horrible way to select new hires. Making the individual uncomfortable seems to be counterproductive. Fortunately, I’m retired now. The various ATS’s cost companies untold millions in missed opportunities as do many HR departments.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#56

Post by lr4444lr » Sun, Jan 01, 2023, 2:01 AM UTC

Ancalagon wrote: post #18

lr4444lr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you're not wrong, and are even downplaying how seriously disruptive a serial job hopper is to a company. I have without regrets red-flagged numerous well-qualified candidates who were an obvious flight risk at the companies I have worked at, which were always smallish. Now that big tech is contracting its ranks somewhat, this behavior is going to be even more suspect, because they will not have that refuge so eas…

How short is short in your opinion?

Speaking personally, I always want to give a technically promising candidate a chance to defend his job hopping, but rarely do I hear convincing reasons for sub 2 year stints unless it is something out of their control, like a spouse needing to move for work, or their whole department getting laid off.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#57

Post by FabHK » Sun, Jan 01, 2023, 2:10 AM UTC

That is a terrible list. Many of those questions are perfectly fine.

10 - Fermi problems. Good to get an indication of a candidate's problem solving skills.

9,8,7,6 - The candidates's motivation, weaknesses, strengths, plans. What's wrong with that? Evidently, you have to modulate the answers somewhat, but the extent to which you do that well is indicative of your understanding of the job requirements, the competition, etc. Perfectly legitimate.

5 - Best candidate. Again, this is a fine question - it allows you to highlight your understanding of the job, and your fit, and your accomplishments, and so on.

4,2 - If you've had unusually short tenures at prior jobs, why? Again, perfectly legitimate question. There might be some reason pertaining to the prior company, or there might be a character trait with the candidate. Insofar as training a candidate incurs some fixed costs, it is legitimate to aim to find out whether they'll stay around for a while.

1,3 - "bad habits", family. Agreed, irrelevant.

But 2/10 is a pretty bad hit ratio for a top 10 list.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#58

Post by xyzelement » Sun, Jan 01, 2023, 2:11 AM UTC

rzzzt wrote: post #53

xyzelement wrote: post #10

#10 is a measurement of ability to mentally model and estimate problems. Relevant to engineering ability. #8 measures self-awareness. Many people can answer this question with "I know I could be much better at X and I am working on it" which is what it's about.

Do recruiters have up-to-date information on the number of piano tuners in NYC? How do they verify the answer?

Not at all. It's about you coming up with a framework for how you'd estimate it, and working through it.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#59

Post by fotcorn » Sun, Jan 01, 2023, 2:27 AM UTC

djbusby wrote: post #5

Ok, what are the best questions?

I like to ask the following as a starting point for an interview:

What is the most interesting project you have worked on recently? Doesn't have to be work related, but should be relevant to the job, e.g. programming, not gardening for a developer role. Why was it interesting? What were the biggest challenges on that project? How did you solve those?

Will show if people are passionate about something specific, and also gives a general measurement on what they consider challenging, and a first insight into their problem solving skills. If the person goes into detail, go along and ask more questions. Very helpful to figure out how a person works. This should hopefully be a low pressure "just talking" question to get started and help people to calm down a bit.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#60

Post by Volundr » Sun, Jan 01, 2023, 2:58 AM UTC

lr4444lr wrote: post #56

Ancalagon wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How short is short in your opinion?

Speaking personally, I always want to give a technically promising candidate a chance to defend his job hopping, but rarely do I hear convincing reasons for sub 2 year stints unless it is something out of their control, like a spouse needing to move for work, or their whole department getting laid off.

I'll just second this based on my experience with software engineers. Most places I've worked your looking at at least 6 months before someone is starting to get enough familiarity with everything involved in the internal ecosystem (both technical and non) to really be productive and probably a year before they're starting to reach the productivity of their peers. So if someone leaves at 2 years you've probably gotten one of something resembling their full productivity. Less than that and there's a good chance your better off hiring the slightly less impressive candidate who will stick around for a few. Less than 6 months to a year you may be better off hiring no one.