I've been asking this very simple question to many people I've interviewed for a backend position. In my mind this is a warm up question and I never expect the full definition, I'm happy if they just tell me about http verbs and say the keyword "stateless". Unfortunately so many times I had people not being able to tell me anything about it, do you think I should reconsider this question, or is it a fare one?
Ask HN: Should a back end Engineer be able to answer what makes an API RESTful?
1–10 of 21 posts
Re: Ask HN: Should a back end Engineer be able to answer what makes an API RESTful?
#2Of course they should. Back-end developers usually build APIs. Hell, I'm a front-end developer and I can easily answer that question. The only thing I can think of is that the people you are interviewing do not have web experience. Are they fresh out of university? I've met plenty of CS students who know all the algorithms and everything about C / C++ but nothing about the web.
Re: Ask HN: Should a back end Engineer be able to answer what makes an API RESTful?
#3Of course they should. Back-end developers usually build APIs. Hell, I'm a front-end developer and I can easily answer that question. The only thing I can think of is that the people you are interviewing do not have web experience. Are they fresh out of university? I've met plenty of CS students who know all the algorithms and everything about C / C++ but nothing about the web.
That is understandable and I'm not a back end Engineer either. But I had an interview with a back end Engineer with like six years of experience. And I really thought that a simple question like this would make them feel at ease because they would know it right away.
Re: Ask HN: Should a back end Engineer be able to answer what makes an API RESTful?
#4I'm an embedded hardware/software developer with only a lightweight exposure to web programming, and I feel that I could answer that question adequately.
I'd be curious to hear the types of responses you're actually getting. I've had to do a lot of interviewing in my career and I've encountered "simple" questions that throw nervous candidates off of their game simply because of a misunderstanding. Sometimes the simplest questions can be the worst because the candidates expect something harder and overthink it. So, you might play with the phrasing a bit, or have different ways of asking it in case they seem to freeze up. For example, "could you name and describe some of the defining properties of a REST API?" or "could you tell me what makes a REST API different from a [SOAP, etc.--pick your favorite alternative] API?"
That said, I would expect a reasonably bright, experienced candidate to understand what you're asking fairly quickly. If you have to re-phrase it 3 times and they're still stuck, they're probably not a good fit.
Re: Ask HN: Should a back end Engineer be able to answer what makes an API RESTful?
#5I've seen so many arguments over what is and isn't really REST, I could see this feeling like a minefield type question.
I can see that making it hard to answer.
Quick Google hits on the matter:
https://api2cart.com/api-technology/what-rest-api-really-is
https://www.infoq.com/news/2016/07/microsoft-rest-api/
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3408191/is-the-twitter-a...
Re: Ask HN: Should a back end Engineer be able to answer what makes an API RESTful?
#6Of course they should. Back-end developers usually build APIs. Hell, I'm a front-end developer and I can easily answer that question. The only thing I can think of is that the people you are interviewing do not have web experience. Are they fresh out of university? I've met plenty of CS students who know all the algorithms and everything about C / C++ but nothing about the web.
That is understandable and I'm not a back end Engineer either. But I had an interview with a back end Engineer with like six years of experience. And I really thought that a simple question like this would make them feel at ease because they would know it right away.
What types of responses do you get?
Re: Ask HN: Should a back end Engineer be able to answer what makes an API RESTful?
#7If you ask 20 'experts' what REST is you will get 20 different answers with surprisingly little overlap.
You are basically asking them to tell you what your personal definition of REST is. You trying to hire psychics?
Re: Ask HN: Should a back end Engineer be able to answer what makes an API RESTful?
#8If you ask 20 'experts' what REST is you will get 20 different answers with surprisingly little overlap. You are basically asking them to tell you what your personal definition of REST is. You trying to hire psychics?
It's not a personal definition I'm looking for, I'm pretty sure all of those experts would mention at least once "stateless". And to be honest I would be happy with that, I would just like to get any answer and if it makes sense I'd be ok with that. I'd like to get something reasonable I'm not asking for the Stars.
Re: Ask HN: Should a back end Engineer be able to answer what makes an API RESTful?
#9I'm an embedded hardware/software developer with only a lightweight exposure to web programming, and I feel that I could answer that question adequately. I'd be curious to hear the types of responses you're actually getting. I've had to do a lot of interviewing in my career and I've encountered "simple" questions that throw nervous candidates off of their game simply because of a misunderstanding. Sometimes the simpl…
Thanks for your great input! Multiple times the only answer I got was "CRUD", without any explanation. Which from a certain perspective it relates to REST but from an experienced engineer is expected a little more, nothing specific just anything really.
Re: Ask HN: Should a back end Engineer be able to answer what makes an API RESTful?
#10If you ask 20 'experts' what REST is you will get 20 different answers with surprisingly little overlap. You are basically asking them to tell you what your personal definition of REST is. You trying to hire psychics?
It's not a personal definition I'm looking for, I'm pretty sure all of those experts would mention at least once "stateless". And to be honest I would be happy with that, I would just like to get any answer and if it makes sense I'd be ok with that. I'd like to get something reasonable I'm not asking for the Stars.
Have a look at the three links in my comment below. Despite one being entitled "what-rest-api-really-is", pressing Control-F and typing "stateless" doesn't give you a hit.