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Hm. I've been programming professionally for 36 years, just looked up the "Cheryl's Birthday" problem, and really enjoyed figuring out the solution. I wouldn'
by pklausler 10y ago
Hm. I've been programming professionally for 36 years, just looked up the "Cheryl's Birthday" problem, and really enjoyed figuring out the solution. I wouldn't ask this sort of thing as an interview question, though, because of the odds of a "false negative".
- doktrin 10y agoI too program professionally (shock of shocks), and I also enjoyed solving the problem. However, I'm torn on how informative this question would be in an interview setting. On the one hand, I kind of abhor gimmicky interview questions. On the other, it could provide some valuable insight into the candidate's thought process & reasoning. Also, I honestly feel like any competent engineer should be able to narrow the solution down to 3 possible dates with some thought and effort - even while in the interview hotseat. It would be unfair to deny someone a position solely on the basis of a logic / word puzzle, but if someone really is incapable (with some light guidance) of tackling at least part of 'cheryl's birthday' then I would want to dig a little deeper to figure out what's going on.
- paulrpotts 10y agoI would not ask it as an interview question either, and in fact I dislike interview puzzles unless they are directly related to the task at hand. I did ask this student to look at it, though. Without knowing anything about her I thought it might give me at least a little insight into whether I thought she was suited to a CS program, or not. Basically, I was hoping that _she_ would use her own reaction to the puzzle to make that judgment about herself. I know CS isn't really directly related to this kind of toy puzzle, but like I mentioned, because solving it requires systematic thinking along the lines of making a mathematical proof.