I think “problem solving” questions are pretty much useless. Engineers need to solve problems, but they don’t have to do it in under an hour and under stress. P

I think “problem solving” questions are pretty much useless. Engineers need to solve problems, but they don’t have to do it in under an hour and under stress. Plus, solving tricky problems is not something you do everyday, or maybe even every week. What I care about when I do interviews is how they organize their code. I want to see what people’s instincts and habits are, because that’s what’s going to determine the quality of 99% of the code they write. I’d rather have someone who can come up with objectively good abstractions instead of writing one giant, unintelligible block of code than someone who can come up with something very clever on the spot to a totally esoteric problem.