4 ms·

I had an interesting interview a few months back, the interviewers said "Please pick a smallish repository and walk us through the design and implementation".

I had an interesting interview a few months back, the interviewers said "Please pick a smallish repository and walk us through the design and implementation". I talked for nearly an hour about one of my projects, first of all the broad design, then various interesting aspects of the implementation. (Most projects have lots of "dull"/"boring" code, but I certainly highlighted the areas I had the most fun/pleasure/difficulty implementing.) Was a nice interview, although it was only possible because I've posted a whole bunch of projects online. I know other people keep their stuff private, or don't even write code in their spare times.

criddell 6y ago
I've interviewed people who don't have public repositories so instead I'll ask them to bring some code with them that they can talk about. It could be a school project, it could be a single function or an entire system. For me, the exercise is mostly about evaluating communication skills.
- toast0 6y ago
  I mean, I can't bring my work code with me, because NDA. I might not have side projects because life, and school was a long time ago --- actually, I don't know if I even have that code, most of it I archived on the school shell server and they kicked me off around 10 years after I graduated. Also, my side project code is garbage, because only I am going to look at it, and so it only needs to make sense to me (and maybe, future me), and it's more fun to write awful things. I'm sure this gets you good insights on some candidates, and probably is pretty decent for fresh grads (who should have something from school), but I can't imagine it working well for a lot of experienced candidates.
  - criddell 6y ago
    Hearing why your side project code is garbage is useful too. The code itself is rarely very interesting. It's all about hearing you describe what's interesting (for positive or negative reasons) and to see how you answer questions or challenges.

criddell 6y ago

I've interviewed people who don't have public repositories so instead I'll ask them to bring some code with them that they can talk about. It could be a school project, it could be a single function or an entire system. For me, the exercise is mostly about evaluating communication skills.

toast0 6y ago
I mean, I can't bring my work code with me, because NDA. I might not have side projects because life, and school was a long time ago --- actually, I don't know if I even have that code, most of it I archived on the school shell server and they kicked me off around 10 years after I graduated. Also, my side project code is garbage, because only I am going to look at it, and so it only needs to make sense to me (and maybe, future me), and it's more fun to write awful things. I'm sure this gets you good insights on some candidates, and probably is pretty decent for fresh grads (who should have something from school), but I can't imagine it working well for a lot of experienced candidates.
- criddell 6y ago
  Hearing why your side project code is garbage is useful too. The code itself is rarely very interesting. It's all about hearing you describe what's interesting (for positive or negative reasons) and to see how you answer questions or challenges.