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I agree with you. The author's inability to write a breadth-first-search under stress, for example, very much highlights this, in my opinion. I sort-of agree t

by tronje 10y ago

I agree with you. The author's inability to write a breadth-first-search under stress, for example, very much highlights this, in my opinion. I sort-of agree that these specific tasks shouldn't be used as an indicator of programming skills, but a breadth-first-search is really quite simple. It's mode of operation is in the name, and even if you haven't implemented one in a while, you should be able to derive some valid pseudo-code after a while. Especially if you do as much coding as this person claims, and thus are confronted with problems to solve on a regular basis.

bpchaps 10y ago
He posts a link to his github page, ffs! Sure, he could've modified that, but that just sounds incredibly silly, considering how open he is about everything else: https://github.com/sahat https://github.com/sahat I spend maybe four hours per coding in a moderately complex domain where I have zero need to know how to write a bfs. To ask someone to do it, then to ding them on it is just self-masturbatory behavior.
p4wnc6 10y ago
The simplicity has nothing to do with it. For example, if you happen to be a very introverted person, then the social awkwardness of working in front of someone you don't know is enough to disrupt all your thinking abilities significantly. You're not only worried about the technical parts of the problem, but you are also worried about things like, "Oh god, I typed that semicolon in the wrong spot. This interviewer is going to think I'm an idiot..." and it's incredibly distracting. This is a normal mode of self-conscious thought for a huge number of people who are otherwise excellent at their jobs and perfectly functional (e.g. introverts). Plus, after you've worked a job for a while and know your team, know what's expected of you, and can get in the zone with some privacy, then these thoughts no longer really affect you. So they only play a significant role during an interview specifically because the interview is not at all a realistic representation of what working will be like. I find it incredibly disturbing that you see fit to infer anything from the author's so-called "inability" to program "under stress." When someone makes that kind of inference, I think it says a lot more about their dysfunction as a colleague than it says about the other person's programming skill. Even if this problem had been Fizz Buzz or swapping two numbers, it's so, so far from simulating what a real work social situation would be like that it renders it useless for assessing the candidate, no matter if they answer it perfectly or fail completely. It's just a useless scenario.
- adam_mckenna 10y ago
  It's bro culture. They don't want introverts -- they want people to drink and watch the game with who they can high five.
phaemon 10y ago
Yeah, it would be like, say, a python developer not knowing how interpreted languages worked. Or how a shebang worked. To the extent of thinking it was impossible to use an interpreted language for `init`. Something like that, right?

by tronje 10y ago

bpchaps 10y ago

He posts a link to his github page, ffs! Sure, he could've modified that, but that just sounds incredibly silly, considering how open he is about everything else: https://github.com/sahat https://github.com/sahat I spend maybe four hours per coding in a moderately complex domain where I have zero need to know how to write a bfs. To ask someone to do it, then to ding them on it is just self-masturbatory behavior.

p4wnc6 10y ago

The simplicity has nothing to do with it. For example, if you happen to be a very introverted person, then the social awkwardness of working in front of someone you don't know is enough to disrupt all your thinking abilities significantly. You're not only worried about the technical parts of the problem, but you are also worried about things like, "Oh god, I typed that semicolon in the wrong spot. This interviewer is going to think I'm an idiot..." and it's incredibly distracting. This is a normal mode of self-conscious thought for a huge number of people who are otherwise excellent at their jobs and perfectly functional (e.g. introverts). Plus, after you've worked a job for a while and know your team, know what's expected of you, and can get in the zone with some privacy, then these thoughts no longer really affect you. So they only play a significant role during an interview specifically because the interview is not at all a realistic representation of what working will be like. I find it incredibly disturbing that you see fit to infer anything from the author's so-called "inability" to program "under stress." When someone makes that kind of inference, I think it says a lot more about their dysfunction as a colleague than it says about the other person's programming skill. Even if this problem had been Fizz Buzz or swapping two numbers, it's so, so far from simulating what a real work social situation would be like that it renders it useless for assessing the candidate, no matter if they answer it perfectly or fail completely. It's just a useless scenario.

adam_mckenna 10y ago
It's bro culture. They don't want introverts -- they want people to drink and watch the game with who they can high five.

phaemon 10y ago

Yeah, it would be like, say, a python developer not knowing how interpreted languages worked. Or how a shebang worked. To the extent of thinking it was impossible to use an interpreted language for `init`. Something like that, right?