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When it comes to a choice of programming language, ultimately a right tool for the right job mentality is good, and for the kinds of tasks that commonly come up

When it comes to a choice of programming language, ultimately a right tool for the right job mentality is good, and for the kinds of tasks that commonly come up in interview situations, C++ (or even Java) is not usually the right tool. This of course doesn't mean that for real life situations, they're never the right tool, but if someone chooses C++ to solve a simple tree inversion or sliding window problem in an interview situation it probably means that they don't have sufficient familiarity with any language more appropriate to the situation.

dabei 9y ago
C++ in the right hand is very succinct and expressive for solving algorithm problems. If someone claim c++ expertise but switch to their secondary language for some questions I'd think twice about hiring them.
- kybernetikos 9y ago
  This is true - there are some people who can make C++ sing even for these kinds of problems, however most people who attempt to use C++ in an interview situation to solve toy interview problems do poorly. For most people, it takes them longer to solve the problem, to find and correct bugs and to provide tests that prove that they've solved the problem correctly than someone solving the same problem in a different language. I've noticed this in my own interviews, and this article mentions it too. It seems to me that the most natural explanations for this are either that the pool of C++ programmers has more bad programmers in it than other languages (which I don't believe) or the language and tools themselves are not as well suited to solving interview questions in interview situations. As to penalising people who switch languages for problems, if you give guidance that you want to see a solution in a particular language, that's fair enough, in any other case it seems unfair and misguided. Perhaps you don't really agree with 'right tool for the right job' when it comes to languages?
drharby 9y ago
But google told me that my language choice won't impact their hiring decision :(
- kybernetikos 9y ago
  And there's probably a sense in which that's true, but if you choose to use piet [1] and struggle to get an answer in the time because you're too busy measuring blocks of pixels, then it will certainly affect their decision. [1] http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html

dabei 9y ago

C++ in the right hand is very succinct and expressive for solving algorithm problems. If someone claim c++ expertise but switch to their secondary language for some questions I'd think twice about hiring them.

kybernetikos 9y ago
This is true - there are some people who can make C++ sing even for these kinds of problems, however most people who attempt to use C++ in an interview situation to solve toy interview problems do poorly. For most people, it takes them longer to solve the problem, to find and correct bugs and to provide tests that prove that they've solved the problem correctly than someone solving the same problem in a different language. I've noticed this in my own interviews, and this article mentions it too. It seems to me that the most natural explanations for this are either that the pool of C++ programmers has more bad programmers in it than other languages (which I don't believe) or the language and tools themselves are not as well suited to solving interview questions in interview situations. As to penalising people who switch languages for problems, if you give guidance that you want to see a solution in a particular language, that's fair enough, in any other case it seems unfair and misguided. Perhaps you don't really agree with 'right tool for the right job' when it comes to languages?

drharby 9y ago

But google told me that my language choice won't impact their hiring decision :(

kybernetikos 9y ago
And there's probably a sense in which that's true, but if you choose to use piet [1] and struggle to get an answer in the time because you're too busy measuring blocks of pixels, then it will certainly affect their decision. [1] http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html