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I feel like that's a bad question to ask. An algorithm question at least lets you attempt it and you can see if they know things. But this question isn't someth

I feel like that's a bad question to ask. An algorithm question at least lets you attempt it and you can see if they know things. But this question isn't something that people normally talk about or think about. I think older engineers would think this is a normal question to ask since they/you have seen the evolution of computers over time, and have actually seen the number of operations changing to get into the billions. But this kind of thing may only be mentioned in one sentence in an intro computer systems course, and most young people wouldn't care about how many operations a CPU can do.

lomereiter 9y ago
They might not care, but in that case this question essentially tests if a person understands what 'GHz' means and can think logically, which is not that much to ask.
- watwut 9y ago
  Why would web programmer think about processors and GHz is beyond me. There are jobs where it might matter, but for most of them it is completely irrelevant.
  - jrowley 9y ago
    When youre writing a complex SPA app and your performance is dragging on that cheap Android, it's nice to be able to reason about things like clock speed, memory usage, etc.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - js2 9y ago
    I know we can treat a lot of the technology we use as a black box, but not knowing even the basics of that technology indicates a lack of curiosity. I'd be shocked to find a competent programmer who couldn't answer the question. A similar question: approximately how many IPv4 addresses are there? See also: "Latency Numbers Every Programmer Should Know"
    - watwut 9y ago
      They might have been curious about different things then you. Or more interested in knowledge that helps build stuff ( still constantly learning, but choices are different).
  - pixelp3 9y ago
    What's next? We shouldn't expect programmers to be aware of how characters, integers and floating point numbers work on a computer?
    - watwut 9y ago
      If they work in high level language that hides all that behind "number", who cares. How floating point numbers are represented is interesting trivia, but hardly useful in most situations. In general, I would expect people to remember things that are used often and be able to learn the rest fast (e.g. understand concepts and have enough knowledge to make further learning easy). The rest is fluff and hidden cultural test: "Do you have the same history as I do?"
qb45 9y ago
> But this kind of thing may only be mentioned in one sentence in an intro computer systems course, and most young people wouldn't care about how many operations a CPU can do. TBH, I'm slightly disturbed by these "young people" who have completely no idea how machines actually work. But the question is silly because there are better ways to ask people if they know in case you require that they know and you probably shouldn't be asking anything at all if you don't care if they know.
- cr0sh 9y ago
  > TBH, I'm slightly disturbed by these "young people" who have completely no idea how machines actually work. I agree with you here, but I would like to think if I were interviewing someone and they told me such, I would then ask something like "How would you go about finding this information out?", and continue down that line (I wouldn't just accept "I'd google it", I'd want something more in depth, even though that would technically be correct).
gilbetron 9y ago
So you would be completely comfortable interviewing someone that claimed to have done 10 years of systems programming, including optimization, and yet when asked that question, just shrugged their shoulders and said, "I dunno"? Even if you asked them how fast a modern processor was and they still said, "I dunno"?
- pragmaddux 9y ago
  In your scenario, the question makes sense. Personally, the question reads like "have you ever pieced-together a computer?" and one could argue that the question could weed out better candidates for certain positions. A growing number of younger engineers have only used machines that come glued-together, and never had to compare performance vs. price as they chose a CPU.`

lomereiter 9y ago

They might not care, but in that case this question essentially tests if a person understands what 'GHz' means and can think logically, which is not that much to ask.

watwut 9y ago
Why would web programmer think about processors and GHz is beyond me. There are jobs where it might matter, but for most of them it is completely irrelevant.
- jrowley 9y ago
  When youre writing a complex SPA app and your performance is dragging on that cheap Android, it's nice to be able to reason about things like clock speed, memory usage, etc.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- js2 9y ago
  I know we can treat a lot of the technology we use as a black box, but not knowing even the basics of that technology indicates a lack of curiosity. I'd be shocked to find a competent programmer who couldn't answer the question. A similar question: approximately how many IPv4 addresses are there? See also: "Latency Numbers Every Programmer Should Know"
  - watwut 9y ago
    They might have been curious about different things then you. Or more interested in knowledge that helps build stuff ( still constantly learning, but choices are different).
- pixelp3 9y ago
  What's next? We shouldn't expect programmers to be aware of how characters, integers and floating point numbers work on a computer?
  - watwut 9y ago
    If they work in high level language that hides all that behind "number", who cares. How floating point numbers are represented is interesting trivia, but hardly useful in most situations. In general, I would expect people to remember things that are used often and be able to learn the rest fast (e.g. understand concepts and have enough knowledge to make further learning easy). The rest is fluff and hidden cultural test: "Do you have the same history as I do?"

qb45 9y ago

> But this kind of thing may only be mentioned in one sentence in an intro computer systems course, and most young people wouldn't care about how many operations a CPU can do. TBH, I'm slightly disturbed by these "young people" who have completely no idea how machines actually work. But the question is silly because there are better ways to ask people if they know in case you require that they know and you probably shouldn't be asking anything at all if you don't care if they know.

cr0sh 9y ago
> TBH, I'm slightly disturbed by these "young people" who have completely no idea how machines actually work. I agree with you here, but I would like to think if I were interviewing someone and they told me such, I would then ask something like "How would you go about finding this information out?", and continue down that line (I wouldn't just accept "I'd google it", I'd want something more in depth, even though that would technically be correct).

gilbetron 9y ago

So you would be completely comfortable interviewing someone that claimed to have done 10 years of systems programming, including optimization, and yet when asked that question, just shrugged their shoulders and said, "I dunno"? Even if you asked them how fast a modern processor was and they still said, "I dunno"?

pragmaddux 9y ago
In your scenario, the question makes sense. Personally, the question reads like "have you ever pieced-together a computer?" and one could argue that the question could weed out better candidates for certain positions. A growing number of younger engineers have only used machines that come glued-together, and never had to compare performance vs. price as they chose a CPU.`