7 ms·

A column orientated file? What format? Excel? CSV? What is cut, sort or head? Are you only accepting Linux candidates then, a tiny percentage of users? This so

A column orientated file? What format? Excel? CSV? What is cut, sort or head? Are you only accepting Linux candidates then, a tiny percentage of users? This sort of utter nonsense question, heavily loaded to your "standard" experience, which is anything but, is even worse than the questions cited in the article. All you're doing is filtering for people who are in your tribe, who followed the same path as you and think like you, use the same tools as you and the same OS as you. Pretend all you want, but you're filtering not by "experience" but by trying to find people in your tribe, which is naturally heavily weighted.

Igelau 7y ago
> Pretend all you want, but you're filtering not by "experience" but by trying to find people in your tribe, which is naturally heavily weighted in chauvinism, racism and elitism. I didn't realize Linux Users counted as a race now :D
- BlueTemplar 7y ago
  We're a penguin-related species...
ramraj07 7y ago
He didn't ask to use cut, you could use whatever windows function you have used as well. Unless, of course, you've never have had to unmangle a weird text file to get something out of it in your computing history. Then perhaps I don't want you at all? OP asked a very open ended question, merely made a suggestion that it could also be done with some standard Unix programs (I grew up on windows and even I know about cut and awk because you spend enough time anywhere in tech you will know these). Why it triggered you, not sure, but perhaps the question it's doing its job after all.
- ip26 7y ago
  Then perhaps I don't want you at all? I've watched a number of new grad hires pick up bash, vim, and version control from scratch in a month or two and go on the be very successful. For better or worse some good schools don't cover those sorts of ancillary skills, and not every good candidate will tinker with Linux as a hobby.
glofish 7y ago
Interesting how negative your reaction is. Also how far off target all that anger is. I am not selecting for a tribe, I am selecting for a job. The questions are loaded, of course. Among the many duties, the jobs do require processing large files, sometimes with cut, Python or C. I want the candidate to use the most appropriate tool as needed. I'd rather not have people implement functionality that already exists in the 'comm' command. Of course, I want the candidate to ask me what the column separator is. That's why the question is formulated that way. The right answer will depend on the column separator. Proposing the UNIX cut if the file is CSV is not such a good answer, but for tab-separated files, it is just fine. If the file is CSV and they tell me about cut, my next question would be if that is a good universal solution for CSV files in general. When someone that knows about the pitfalls of using cut when parsing CSV it shows me they have indeed had experience with that. Do you see why this question is the best... the possibilities are endless, and the rabbit hole much deeper than it may seem
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- amznthrowaway5 7y ago
  > The right answer will depend on the column separator. Proposing the UNIX cut if the file is CSV is not such a good answer, but for tab-separated files, it is just fine. If the file is CSV and they tell me about cut, my next question would be if that is a good universal solution for CSV files in general. TSV and CSV have the same limitations. A tab-separated file could still have tabs inside a field depending on the quoting convention. Either separator could be used with cut. I can't believe you are so confident in your partially truthful answers.
  - AtlasBarfed 7y ago
    Bingo!
  - buzzkillington 7y ago
    The only true Unix column format is ascii delimited text. Oddly no one has heard of that, the only reason why I found out about it is because I had to read in punched tapes with 7 character ascii from an experiment done in the 80s during my undergrad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delimiter#ASCII_delimited_text https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delimiter#ASCII_delimited_text
SkyPuncher 7y ago
`cut`, `sort`, and `head` are basic Unix commands. Even in a Windows world, they're easily available (either running Ubuntu terminal or cygwin). This is like complaining that you can't read the basics of a new programming language.

Igelau 7y ago

> Pretend all you want, but you're filtering not by "experience" but by trying to find people in your tribe, which is naturally heavily weighted in chauvinism, racism and elitism. I didn't realize Linux Users counted as a race now :D

BlueTemplar 7y ago
We're a penguin-related species...

ramraj07 7y ago

He didn't ask to use cut, you could use whatever windows function you have used as well. Unless, of course, you've never have had to unmangle a weird text file to get something out of it in your computing history. Then perhaps I don't want you at all? OP asked a very open ended question, merely made a suggestion that it could also be done with some standard Unix programs (I grew up on windows and even I know about cut and awk because you spend enough time anywhere in tech you will know these). Why it triggered you, not sure, but perhaps the question it's doing its job after all.

ip26 7y ago
Then perhaps I don't want you at all? I've watched a number of new grad hires pick up bash, vim, and version control from scratch in a month or two and go on the be very successful. For better or worse some good schools don't cover those sorts of ancillary skills, and not every good candidate will tinker with Linux as a hobby.

glofish 7y ago

Interesting how negative your reaction is. Also how far off target all that anger is. I am not selecting for a tribe, I am selecting for a job. The questions are loaded, of course. Among the many duties, the jobs do require processing large files, sometimes with cut, Python or C. I want the candidate to use the most appropriate tool as needed. I'd rather not have people implement functionality that already exists in the 'comm' command. Of course, I want the candidate to ask me what the column separator is. That's why the question is formulated that way. The right answer will depend on the column separator. Proposing the UNIX cut if the file is CSV is not such a good answer, but for tab-separated files, it is just fine. If the file is CSV and they tell me about cut, my next question would be if that is a good universal solution for CSV files in general. When someone that knows about the pitfalls of using cut when parsing CSV it shows me they have indeed had experience with that. Do you see why this question is the best... the possibilities are endless, and the rabbit hole much deeper than it may seem

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
amznthrowaway5 7y ago
> The right answer will depend on the column separator. Proposing the UNIX cut if the file is CSV is not such a good answer, but for tab-separated files, it is just fine. If the file is CSV and they tell me about cut, my next question would be if that is a good universal solution for CSV files in general. TSV and CSV have the same limitations. A tab-separated file could still have tabs inside a field depending on the quoting convention. Either separator could be used with cut. I can't believe you are so confident in your partially truthful answers.
- AtlasBarfed 7y ago
  Bingo!
- buzzkillington 7y ago
  The only true Unix column format is ascii delimited text. Oddly no one has heard of that, the only reason why I found out about it is because I had to read in punched tapes with 7 character ascii from an experiment done in the 80s during my undergrad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delimiter#ASCII_delimited_text https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delimiter#ASCII_delimited_text

SkyPuncher 7y ago

`cut`, `sort`, and `head` are basic Unix commands. Even in a Windows world, they're easily available (either running Ubuntu terminal or cygwin). This is like complaining that you can't read the basics of a new programming language.