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1. read the manual pages in book form. 2. play a man page quiz with a friend: - read a random command and ask for the description - read a random descrip
by jll29 6y ago
1. read the manual pages in book form.
2. play a man page quiz with a friend:
- read a random command and ask for the description
- read a random description and ask which command it is for.
I've done both as an undergraduate. The HP-UX manual set remain on the shelves right next to me. Over the years, I found letting candidates compose a pipeline of commands to solve a problem is a great way to make interviews more fun ("How would you solve this problem without writing a program, by combining existing ones?").
- rodiger 6y agoThat's useful, but as someone with an unreliable memory having to recall specific commands under pressure doesn't sound too fun :)
- Tsiklon 6y agoI don't think absolute precision regarding specific commands or flags therein would be required because when you're in the chair and dealing with a problem you're going to have access to the resources you need to get that precision (man pages, vendor documentation etc). Though being able to explain the mental model of how you want to go about manipulating the output, extraction of the information or data you need, be it through json manipulation, regex, line/column parsing etc is valuable.
- narwally 6y agoExactly, the man pages are there so I don't have to remember every command perfectly.
- Raineer 6y agoI did the "man pages in book form" when studying for my LPIC. Also flashcards. Both approaches worked excellently :)