3 ms·

EDIT: Has anyone else had OK experiences with on-the-spot programming as they were interviewed? </edit> I don’t get all the people saying that most people can’

by alanh 16y ago

EDIT: Has anyone else had OK experiences with on-the-spot programming as they were interviewed? </edit> I don’t get all the people saying that most people can’t code under the pressure of an interview. What’s the big deal? It’s one function. I have certainly been asked technical questions in interviews, including to write code on a whiteboard, and it’s no big deal — I have missed a bracket or two, or been slightly off, but if it’s 95% right that’s good enough for the interviewer. I’m not Mr. Cool, either. Finals, deadlines, and papers all really stressed me out in school (mere months ago). I can just code alright and I understand the tech. I just don’t get it. I also don’t understand what the alternative is: just take people at their word they are great programmers?

varjag 16y ago
Depends on complexity. Would you like to write a 4-hour test assignment that boils down to partial sort of dependency graph (true story)? Oh and no pseudocode, it has to compile and run.
- alanh 16y ago
  That sounds quite rough, but that’s not FizzBuzz or the kind of function described in the article. Good point, though.
cantastoria 16y ago
I also don’t understand what the alternative is: just take people at their word they are great programmers? We've had great success giving candidates a week to design and implement a small application from end to end. It really let's you see everything all at once. Can they design? Good comments? Good data structure selection? It's the best of all worlds. The candidate has time to really show off their ability, you'll get a much more holistic view of their skills and it puts them equal footing with the interviewer because they've had a lot time to think about the problem. We found that whiteboard coding questions tend to favor "geek jocks" that are really just good test takers.
- alanh 16y ago
  Doesn’t a little app seem like a lot of unpaid work to ask of prospective employees? I’m not so sure about "geek jock" but I do happen to be a good test-taker. (I assumed most nerds were, though.)
  - cantastoria 16y ago
    Actually we've tried giving them a choice. Most chose to do the assignment rather have to go through a high pressure interview answering whiteboard questions. We're not asking them to solve problems that could possibly be used in any of our products so they don't feel taken advantage of and it's usually something fairly simple (e.g. design a parking lot management system). All in all they probably spend as much time writing the small sample app as they would in the typical all-day interview loop.
arghnoname 16y ago
I've been on interviews where the questions are so basic I've been variously confused and insulted. "This job must pay crap," I'd think, or it's pointless work. Now, thanks to the Internet, I've learned that these things can't be taken for granted. And I'm not a coding genius. I don't particularly like being put on the spot. I've had problems coding before (personally) and just had to go away until the problem magically became easy. Under the pressure of an interview, that kind of lockup would be disastrous. So it sucks, but apparently the industry is in a place right now where a lot of less capable people have resumes that suggest they can do the jobs for which they are applying to. I object far more to the presumption that some company can waste my time for two days of non-stop interviews than ask me to code up some problem for them.

by alanh 16y ago

varjag 16y ago

Depends on complexity. Would you like to write a 4-hour test assignment that boils down to partial sort of dependency graph (true story)? Oh and no pseudocode, it has to compile and run.

alanh 16y ago
That sounds quite rough, but that’s not FizzBuzz or the kind of function described in the article. Good point, though.

cantastoria 16y ago

I also don’t understand what the alternative is: just take people at their word they are great programmers? We've had great success giving candidates a week to design and implement a small application from end to end. It really let's you see everything all at once. Can they design? Good comments? Good data structure selection? It's the best of all worlds. The candidate has time to really show off their ability, you'll get a much more holistic view of their skills and it puts them equal footing with the interviewer because they've had a lot time to think about the problem. We found that whiteboard coding questions tend to favor "geek jocks" that are really just good test takers.

alanh 16y ago
Doesn’t a little app seem like a lot of unpaid work to ask of prospective employees? I’m not so sure about "geek jock" but I do happen to be a good test-taker. (I assumed most nerds were, though.)
- cantastoria 16y ago
  Actually we've tried giving them a choice. Most chose to do the assignment rather have to go through a high pressure interview answering whiteboard questions. We're not asking them to solve problems that could possibly be used in any of our products so they don't feel taken advantage of and it's usually something fairly simple (e.g. design a parking lot management system). All in all they probably spend as much time writing the small sample app as they would in the typical all-day interview loop.

arghnoname 16y ago

I've been on interviews where the questions are so basic I've been variously confused and insulted. "This job must pay crap," I'd think, or it's pointless work. Now, thanks to the Internet, I've learned that these things can't be taken for granted. And I'm not a coding genius. I don't particularly like being put on the spot. I've had problems coding before (personally) and just had to go away until the problem magically became easy. Under the pressure of an interview, that kind of lockup would be disastrous. So it sucks, but apparently the industry is in a place right now where a lot of less capable people have resumes that suggest they can do the jobs for which they are applying to. I object far more to the presumption that some company can waste my time for two days of non-stop interviews than ask me to code up some problem for them.