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Do senior software engineers actually have to write code in interviews these days? I have no problem brainstorming on a whiteboard with their CTO or senior arc

Do senior software engineers actually have to write code in interviews these days? I have no problem brainstorming on a whiteboard with their CTO or senior architect, but I would consider it silly to do puzzle programs or write java with some middle-manager lurking over me

collyw 11y ago
Unfortunately so. A ten minute chat with the HR drones who are able to answer virtually nothing about the role followed by a three hour hacker rank challenge or something similar. I even wrote a small application an stuck it n Heroku as an example of my work. I used to be good at those kind of tests 15 years ago. Now I am orders of magnitude more competent at designing implementing and deploying systems I have way more knowledge in all of those areas, but I get tested on that nonsense. I hardly ever write algorithms (occasionally), as I will look for an appropraite library first.
tomtang0514 11y ago
Employer can't always make assumption that ones title match ones capability right? I do agree puzzle is silly, but some sort of programming question is required. To my understanding most senior SDE still need to write lots of code, and it's quite important check their code quality. Personally I've seen senior engineer made unnecessary type conversion which brings down production servers. I've even seen lead engineer write really shitty code with duplicate nested if statement and redundant for loops.
tezzer 11y ago
Yes, I interviewed with Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Trimble, Qualcomm and Apple in the last 18 months for senior or staff engineer positions; all required white board coding. In general the coding was not the most important part of the interview, just a check for experience and competence. For contrast, when I got my job with NASA 10 years ago the interview was almost entirely coding, and coding minutia in multiple languages. Maybe 30% design and algorithms and 70% code over 3 days of interviews.

collyw 11y ago

Unfortunately so. A ten minute chat with the HR drones who are able to answer virtually nothing about the role followed by a three hour hacker rank challenge or something similar. I even wrote a small application an stuck it n Heroku as an example of my work. I used to be good at those kind of tests 15 years ago. Now I am orders of magnitude more competent at designing implementing and deploying systems I have way more knowledge in all of those areas, but I get tested on that nonsense. I hardly ever write algorithms (occasionally), as I will look for an appropraite library first.

tomtang0514 11y ago

Employer can't always make assumption that ones title match ones capability right? I do agree puzzle is silly, but some sort of programming question is required. To my understanding most senior SDE still need to write lots of code, and it's quite important check their code quality. Personally I've seen senior engineer made unnecessary type conversion which brings down production servers. I've even seen lead engineer write really shitty code with duplicate nested if statement and redundant for loops.

tezzer 11y ago

Yes, I interviewed with Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Trimble, Qualcomm and Apple in the last 18 months for senior or staff engineer positions; all required white board coding. In general the coding was not the most important part of the interview, just a check for experience and competence. For contrast, when I got my job with NASA 10 years ago the interview was almost entirely coding, and coding minutia in multiple languages. Maybe 30% design and algorithms and 70% code over 3 days of interviews.