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I usually ask a trivial problem like this. Not really to see if they can code (I have had one or two people fail here though), but more to serve as a conversati

I usually ask a trivial problem like this. Not really to see if they can code (I have had one or two people fail here though), but more to serve as a conversation topic. Why did you do this? How would you do that? etc...

diminoten 8y ago
But I don't want to talk about FizzBuzz! It's boring! There's a "right" answer, and not a lot/any real choice or nuance. Ask me about your current problems, problems the person filling the position would need to have opinions about. If nothing else, maybe I could crack a tough issue for you that would have material value. I've given FizzBuzz, and I've done FizzBuzz. It's hard to do it/get it and not feel like there's some degree of insult involved.
- imron 8y ago
  > and not a lot/any real choice or nuance. Exactly! And people still get it wrong. It's a low-pass filter to weed out programmers who can't even do FizzBuzz, because despite their lack of coding prowess their résumé will still look similar to yours. > and not feel like there's some degree of insult involved. That's just reading far too much in to it.
- pixeloution 8y ago
  I can't talk to you about my team's current problems, and neither should anyone else. If I do and you offer up a solution I'm in real trouble ... because that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Try to remember, this is the country where a range check function resulted in a lawsuit: private static void rangeCheck(int arrayLen, int fromIndex, int toIndex { if (fromIndex > toIndex) throw new IllegalArgumentException("fromIndex(" + fromIndex + ") > toIndex(" + toIndex+")"); if (fromIndex < 0) throw new ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException(fromIndex); if (toIndex > arrayLen) throw new ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException(toIndex); }
- time0ut 8y ago
  Even something as boring as FizzBuzz can foster an interesting, if short, conversation. I've had candidates bring up everything from unit testing strategies to the implications of branch prediction. It can also help less confident candidates to start with a softball. Anyway, it is just the first question and we are usually past it in five minutes. Then we discuss, in general terms, the types of problems we are solving and the related computer science topics. It certainly isn't meant to insult. I hope I haven't insulted anyone and, if I have, they've never made it known to me. I will say that it'd be a huge red flag to me if a candidate acted like this was beneath them. The reality is that, while we will be solving some cool and hard problems, there will be lots of problems that are beneath us, too.

diminoten 8y ago

But I don't want to talk about FizzBuzz! It's boring! There's a "right" answer, and not a lot/any real choice or nuance. Ask me about your current problems, problems the person filling the position would need to have opinions about. If nothing else, maybe I could crack a tough issue for you that would have material value. I've given FizzBuzz, and I've done FizzBuzz. It's hard to do it/get it and not feel like there's some degree of insult involved.

imron 8y ago
> and not a lot/any real choice or nuance. Exactly! And people still get it wrong. It's a low-pass filter to weed out programmers who can't even do FizzBuzz, because despite their lack of coding prowess their résumé will still look similar to yours. > and not feel like there's some degree of insult involved. That's just reading far too much in to it.
pixeloution 8y ago
I can't talk to you about my team's current problems, and neither should anyone else. If I do and you offer up a solution I'm in real trouble ... because that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Try to remember, this is the country where a range check function resulted in a lawsuit: private static void rangeCheck(int arrayLen, int fromIndex, int toIndex { if (fromIndex > toIndex) throw new IllegalArgumentException("fromIndex(" + fromIndex + ") > toIndex(" + toIndex+")"); if (fromIndex < 0) throw new ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException(fromIndex); if (toIndex > arrayLen) throw new ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException(toIndex); }
time0ut 8y ago
Even something as boring as FizzBuzz can foster an interesting, if short, conversation. I've had candidates bring up everything from unit testing strategies to the implications of branch prediction. It can also help less confident candidates to start with a softball. Anyway, it is just the first question and we are usually past it in five minutes. Then we discuss, in general terms, the types of problems we are solving and the related computer science topics. It certainly isn't meant to insult. I hope I haven't insulted anyone and, if I have, they've never made it known to me. I will say that it'd be a huge red flag to me if a candidate acted like this was beneath them. The reality is that, while we will be solving some cool and hard problems, there will be lots of problems that are beneath us, too.