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I have a standard preface to start a live coding or technical session with a candidate to account for this. I look up stuff all the time, and expecting candidat

I have a standard preface to start a live coding or technical session with a candidate to account for this. I look up stuff all the time, and expecting candidates to not do so is cruel. > We're going to go through a few technical exercises together. It's open book, open documentation, use whatever resources you would normally use — though please do not copy and paste complete solutions from StackOverflow and guess&check to reach our solution. It's open language, so please select whatever you're strongest in. If it is a language I am not familiar with, I will ask questions. Some of those questions may be naive. Use whatever editor and environment you're most comfortable in. Please ask questions of me. There is no specifically correct answer, though your solutions should hit a level of baseline correctness. These problems are designed to mirror some typical day-to-day problems you might face on the job; we're not looking to test rote memorization of _Hacking the Coding Interview_. We want working code, but some aspects or edge cases may remain in pseudocode as we iterate on these problems together. There are no designed 'gotcha' moments in these exercises, and if you feel there may be a 'gotcha' moment, ask clarifying questions. I would rather you ask questions than struggle through a solution. It works well for modern development.

pmiller2 6y ago
Maybe I should start saying (as a candidate): > I understand you want to test my programming ability, and in order to do that, we should do it under conditions as close to real world as possible. Because I don't know every algorithm in existence, I'm going to use the internet like I do normally to look stuff up. And, I'm going to use my own laptop that I've brought here. Is that cool? Not really, of course, but I'd like to.
- Stratoscope 6y ago
  Yes, you should be saying exactly that. Just do it ahead of time instead of on the spot. You're probably emailing back and forth with a recruiter. Send them the exact comment you posted here, and ask that they make sure that your interviewers know about it. It's amazing how little things can throw you off your game. I had a couple where they handed me a MacBook set up for "traditional" touchpad scrolling (where it works like a scrollbar instead of like a touchscreen). Every time I tried to scroll it went the wrong direction! Of course in an interview we aim to please, so I lived with it for a few minutes, but finally asked "Do you mind if I change your touchpad settings?" Of course that led to a brief discussion on the virtues of traditional scrolling. This was not only precious time wasted, but a minor blow to my self-confidence. Imagine you tried to drive a car or fly an airplane and they had sneakily reversed the steering wheel or yoke and pedals! You would be lucky to survive. In fact this is why the preflight checklist for a light plane always includes "controls free and correct".

pmiller2 6y ago

Maybe I should start saying (as a candidate): > I understand you want to test my programming ability, and in order to do that, we should do it under conditions as close to real world as possible. Because I don't know every algorithm in existence, I'm going to use the internet like I do normally to look stuff up. And, I'm going to use my own laptop that I've brought here. Is that cool? Not really, of course, but I'd like to.

Stratoscope 6y ago
Yes, you should be saying exactly that. Just do it ahead of time instead of on the spot. You're probably emailing back and forth with a recruiter. Send them the exact comment you posted here, and ask that they make sure that your interviewers know about it. It's amazing how little things can throw you off your game. I had a couple where they handed me a MacBook set up for "traditional" touchpad scrolling (where it works like a scrollbar instead of like a touchscreen). Every time I tried to scroll it went the wrong direction! Of course in an interview we aim to please, so I lived with it for a few minutes, but finally asked "Do you mind if I change your touchpad settings?" Of course that led to a brief discussion on the virtues of traditional scrolling. This was not only precious time wasted, but a minor blow to my self-confidence. Imagine you tried to drive a car or fly an airplane and they had sneakily reversed the steering wheel or yoke and pedals! You would be lucky to survive. In fact this is why the preflight checklist for a light plane always includes "controls free and correct".