4 ms·

I have learned that an (in)ability to program "in the small" correlates very well with an (in)ability to program in the large, and now ask mostly simply questio

I have learned that an (in)ability to program "in the small" correlates very well with an (in)ability to program in the large, and now ask mostly simply questions whose answers are things like one-line Boolean predicates to test for well-defined conditions. It is paradoxically easier for an inept candidate to fake his way through an algorithm design question than it is to fake the coding of a simple test for "determine whether two closed intervals [a,b] and [x,y] overlap each other".

Ocerge 11y ago
I've moved to doing something extremely simple: just give me pseudo-code for indexOf given a string and a character. If you can't write the 4-5 liner for linearly searching a string for a character, then there's not much point in moving further. It is shocking how many people get tripped up by it.
- pklausler 11y ago
  I'm similarly shocked, but it's just how things are now. I'm not sure how I could set the bars any lower.
- jcadam 11y ago
  Is it a sign of insecurity that I just popped open vi to make sure I could solve this? :) Where I work, we've been trying to fill a vacancy for a senior dev for months. Our one whiteboard question is similarly easy: find the largest integer in an array (The interviews have become easier since I was hired on). And yet... I've been watching an endless parade of people with decades of experience who apparently don't know how to write a for loop :(
  - pklausler 11y ago
    And yet they can somehow get through a telephone screening interview.
hackinthebochs 11y ago
Exactly this. I've been arguing for years that those simple string/array/link list/tree manipulation questions are simply a microcosm of the qualities that make for good developers in general. If those trip you up then you need to consider that there are serious holes in your abilities, not that the test is bad.
deleted 11y ago
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Ocerge 11y ago

I've moved to doing something extremely simple: just give me pseudo-code for indexOf given a string and a character. If you can't write the 4-5 liner for linearly searching a string for a character, then there's not much point in moving further. It is shocking how many people get tripped up by it.

pklausler 11y ago
I'm similarly shocked, but it's just how things are now. I'm not sure how I could set the bars any lower.
jcadam 11y ago
Is it a sign of insecurity that I just popped open vi to make sure I could solve this? :) Where I work, we've been trying to fill a vacancy for a senior dev for months. Our one whiteboard question is similarly easy: find the largest integer in an array (The interviews have become easier since I was hired on). And yet... I've been watching an endless parade of people with decades of experience who apparently don't know how to write a for loop :(
- pklausler 11y ago
  And yet they can somehow get through a telephone screening interview.

hackinthebochs 11y ago

Exactly this. I've been arguing for years that those simple string/array/link list/tree manipulation questions are simply a microcosm of the qualities that make for good developers in general. If those trip you up then you need to consider that there are serious holes in your abilities, not that the test is bad.

deleted 11y ago

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