4 ms·

I dont think it even needs to be reverse a string or fizzbuzz or crossword solver to filter people out - personally I think that some of these "easy" questions

I dont think it even needs to be reverse a string or fizzbuzz or crossword solver to filter people out - personally I think that some of these "easy" questions often have too much of a riddle about them, especially if you are just hiring bums-on-seats to crank out CRUD or MVC code to meet a looming deadline. I dont want to try and trick them or see if they grok my contrived question - I want to know if they are self-sufficient and get stuff done (sure if you are trying to hire a contractor to do significant design & architecting, then sure use the riddles) Next time I am recruiting contractors I think I'd probably just hand them a clean-install laptop with just notepad + compiler (or browser, if they are a frontend dev) with no internet connection or fancy libraries, then ask them to write something super basic, like print out the 10 green bottles song on screen, then sit back and watch over their shoulder. If they cant do that in 5 minutes, then "Thanks for coming, we'll be in touch!", if they can then the real interview starts.

reitanqild 9y ago
Next time I am recruiting contractors I think I'd probably just hand them a clean-install laptop with just notepad + compiler (or browser, Well, one more reason to love my employer who didn't pull this kind of craziness on me. Just remember a lot of us hasn't written a main method for years: Traditional Java web applications doesn't use main as an entry point even if I understand that todays cool ones probably do. And compiling from the command line without maven? Haven't done for years. I'll figure it out, fast, with internet. But leaving people with notepad and a compiler: that is going to sift out a number of good Java backenders - if not for anything else then because it feels stupid and a bad start of a relationship. That's not something you want when the market for programmers is red hot. I'm still fairly competent at a lot of other aspects of Java and have successfully maintained and simplified a lot of software.
- mattlondon 9y ago
  Fair points. I think obviously it depends on specifics of the role etc - I'd not expect (nor need!) a web developer to know how to write a command line app etc. Just needing bums-on-seats developers to just churn out MVC code and who dont know how to do "javac -help" if all they've ever used is maven or gradle etc might be acceptable, but I might lose a bit of faith in humanity along the way (...and maybe I expect too much!) :-) Perhaps it would be better to have a very, very, very simple application (like a simple calculator, or a simple web app, using the framework(s)/libraries you're using and the person is applying for (i.e. they should know it)), then show them a failing unit-test and/or a simple bug report and see what they do to resolve it. Basically, I want to see someone actually do something realistic and actually produce something tangible for me to judge my decisions on. I've been burnt a few times in the past hiring people who were good at the "book smarts" during interview, but were bad when it came to actually doing stuff.

reitanqild 9y ago

Next time I am recruiting contractors I think I'd probably just hand them a clean-install laptop with just notepad + compiler (or browser, Well, one more reason to love my employer who didn't pull this kind of craziness on me. Just remember a lot of us hasn't written a main method for years: Traditional Java web applications doesn't use main as an entry point even if I understand that todays cool ones probably do. And compiling from the command line without maven? Haven't done for years. I'll figure it out, fast, with internet. But leaving people with notepad and a compiler: that is going to sift out a number of good Java backenders - if not for anything else then because it feels stupid and a bad start of a relationship. That's not something you want when the market for programmers is red hot. I'm still fairly competent at a lot of other aspects of Java and have successfully maintained and simplified a lot of software.

mattlondon 9y ago
Fair points. I think obviously it depends on specifics of the role etc - I'd not expect (nor need!) a web developer to know how to write a command line app etc. Just needing bums-on-seats developers to just churn out MVC code and who dont know how to do "javac -help" if all they've ever used is maven or gradle etc might be acceptable, but I might lose a bit of faith in humanity along the way (...and maybe I expect too much!) :-) Perhaps it would be better to have a very, very, very simple application (like a simple calculator, or a simple web app, using the framework(s)/libraries you're using and the person is applying for (i.e. they should know it)), then show them a failing unit-test and/or a simple bug report and see what they do to resolve it. Basically, I want to see someone actually do something realistic and actually produce something tangible for me to judge my decisions on. I've been burnt a few times in the past hiring people who were good at the "book smarts" during interview, but were bad when it came to actually doing stuff.