3 ms·

As someone that does lots of coding phone interviews I can say that yes, time is a factor. But it's relative, ie I'm comparing you to the time it took other can

by d1zzy 9y ago

As someone that does lots of coding phone interviews I can say that yes, time is a factor. But it's relative, ie I'm comparing you to the time it took other candidates to solve the same problem. After all, we have to evaluate you, over the phone, in the course of less than an hour. If 2 candidates arrive to the optimal solution, the one that did it much faster is the better candidate. It sounds to me like you did pretty well so don't give up.

sankyo 9y ago
> the one that did it much faster is the better candidate. From my perspective that is only about 3% of what I expect from a software engineer. Writing readable, easy to maintain code that is well tested, collaborating with product and other developers for how a feature should work, influencing technical designs, giving good feedback are things I value much higher than how quickly someone can write a snippet of code that works.
mratzloff 9y ago
If 2 candidates arrive to the optimal solution, the one that did it much faster is the better candidate. How did you arrive at that conclusion? Is it based on data or does it "feel" right based on an easily-measured metric?
cloverich 9y ago
> If 2 candidates arrive to the optimal solution, the one that did it much faster is the better candidate. This is _a_ metric but I wouldn't bet too much on it. I know lots of people that come to optimal solutions to "algorithm type" _much_ faster than I do. I'm pretty slow at that type of stuff. But... its just such a small part of what makes someone a good programmer. Building out a medium to large application requires balancing a lot of trade offs and figuring out how to keep things simple. I know seasoned, quality algorithm solvers who honestly just repeatedly churn out garbage applications. And they can tank the productivity of an entire team of developers in their wake. I don't know how you test for that, but I can promise phone screening for problem solution time isn't it.
ubernostrum 9y ago
the one that did it much faster is the better candidate Translated: "the one that did it much faster is a more recent graduate and exploitable for 100-hour weeks at below-par pay, hire that one". Congratulations, now you know how to hire at a tech company!

by d1zzy 9y ago

sankyo 9y ago

> the one that did it much faster is the better candidate. From my perspective that is only about 3% of what I expect from a software engineer. Writing readable, easy to maintain code that is well tested, collaborating with product and other developers for how a feature should work, influencing technical designs, giving good feedback are things I value much higher than how quickly someone can write a snippet of code that works.

mratzloff 9y ago

If 2 candidates arrive to the optimal solution, the one that did it much faster is the better candidate. How did you arrive at that conclusion? Is it based on data or does it "feel" right based on an easily-measured metric?

cloverich 9y ago

> If 2 candidates arrive to the optimal solution, the one that did it much faster is the better candidate. This is _a_ metric but I wouldn't bet too much on it. I know lots of people that come to optimal solutions to "algorithm type" _much_ faster than I do. I'm pretty slow at that type of stuff. But... its just such a small part of what makes someone a good programmer. Building out a medium to large application requires balancing a lot of trade offs and figuring out how to keep things simple. I know seasoned, quality algorithm solvers who honestly just repeatedly churn out garbage applications. And they can tank the productivity of an entire team of developers in their wake. I don't know how you test for that, but I can promise phone screening for problem solution time isn't it.

ubernostrum 9y ago

the one that did it much faster is the better candidate Translated: "the one that did it much faster is a more recent graduate and exploitable for 100-hour weeks at below-par pay, hire that one". Congratulations, now you know how to hire at a tech company!