7 ms·

I don't quite understand how such questions help in the hiring process? It reminds me of the famous "why are pothole covers round" question, still not sure what

I don't quite understand how such questions help in the hiring process? It reminds me of the famous "why are pothole covers round" question, still not sure what it achieves.

goodpoint 5y ago
Some are silly, some are effective ways to measure curiosity and ability to think through an abstract problem.
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
  Yes, but how many of them are relevant to determining if a particular candidate is a good fit for a programming position?
  - mhb 5y ago
    Engineers, not programmers.
    - dpark 5y ago
      What kind of “engineers”? I’m not aware of most engineers going through this sort of interview. Mostly just software engineers who are indeed programmers even if they get uppity about the title
      - mhb 5y ago
        OK, I'll play. Some qualities that are valuable in an engineer are curiosity, creativity, and general knowledge. If your nomenclature has a programmer as a software engineer and a software engineer as an engineer, then these qualities are also valuable in programmers. If you ask an interviewee how GPS works and he says something about the cell phone sending signals to a satellite, you would want to pursue that further, at least to make sure that he's asserting that with a sufficiently low confidence.
        dpark 5y ago
        Let me rephrase my question. Are you nitpicking the difference between a different engineer and a programmer or are you interviewing a different sort of engineer?
        mhb 5y ago
        The thread became about whether a good interview question for an engineer was how she thought GPS works. HeyLaughingBoy thinks that the qualities a question like that seeks to explore are irrelevant for a programming job. I think that it is a good question for any engineer. One explanation for why HeyLaughingBoy might have disagreed was that HeyLaughingBoy was making a distinction between a programmer and an engineer. I thought that highlighting the distinction between what HeyLaughingBoy wrote (programmer) and the parent (engineer) was a parsimonious way of expressing this.
  - mellavora 5y ago
    Well, obviously if the candidate is round then they fit. or was that the pothole cover? Sorry, I might have gotten confused.
  - goodpoint 5y ago
littlecranky67 5y ago
Actually this is a very good question for engineers, as the (wrong) idea that a smartphone regularly sends data to a satellite shows fundamental lack of knowledge in some very basic physical understanding. The basic understanding should be: transmitting/sending = emitting energy (costly if a device runs on batteries), receiving/listening for a signal = almost for free nowadays. I also like the question because even if you have no idea how GPS actually works, you could quickly come up with the rough idea yourself given that you have a bunch of satellites that can emit arbitrary signals. Lots of room to show creative and analytical thinking here.
- wonnage 5y ago
  I have a hard time imagining engineers in any other field (e.g a structural engineer) would be getting asked questions about GPS as a proxy for general engineering knowhow.
  - lazide 5y ago
    Do you have experience interviewing or seeing interview questions in those fields?
    - littlecranky67 5y ago
      Yes, you will be asked to showcase 2-3 side-projects such as houses, bridges and tunnels you built & designed in your backyard and discuss your design decisions on a whiteboard.
      - lazide 5y ago
        Not sure if serious?
      - rzzzt 5y ago
        Maybe a take-home exercise, like a small viaduct or a dome.
- dpark 5y ago

I don't quite understand how such questions help in the hiring process? It reminds me of the famous "why are pothole covers round" question, still not sure what it achieves.

goodpoint 5y ago

Some are silly, some are effective ways to measure curiosity and ability to think through an abstract problem.

HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
Yes, but how many of them are relevant to determining if a particular candidate is a good fit for a programming position?
- mhb 5y ago
  Engineers, not programmers.
  - dpark 5y ago
    What kind of “engineers”? I’m not aware of most engineers going through this sort of interview. Mostly just software engineers who are indeed programmers even if they get uppity about the title
    - mhb 5y ago
      OK, I'll play. Some qualities that are valuable in an engineer are curiosity, creativity, and general knowledge. If your nomenclature has a programmer as a software engineer and a software engineer as an engineer, then these qualities are also valuable in programmers. If you ask an interviewee how GPS works and he says something about the cell phone sending signals to a satellite, you would want to pursue that further, at least to make sure that he's asserting that with a sufficiently low confidence.
      - dpark 5y ago
        Let me rephrase my question. Are you nitpicking the difference between a different engineer and a programmer or are you interviewing a different sort of engineer?
        mhb 5y ago
        The thread became about whether a good interview question for an engineer was how she thought GPS works. HeyLaughingBoy thinks that the qualities a question like that seeks to explore are irrelevant for a programming job. I think that it is a good question for any engineer. One explanation for why HeyLaughingBoy might have disagreed was that HeyLaughingBoy was making a distinction between a programmer and an engineer. I thought that highlighting the distinction between what HeyLaughingBoy wrote (programmer) and the parent (engineer) was a parsimonious way of expressing this.
- mellavora 5y ago
  Well, obviously if the candidate is round then they fit. or was that the pothole cover? Sorry, I might have gotten confused.
- goodpoint 5y ago

littlecranky67 5y ago

Actually this is a very good question for engineers, as the (wrong) idea that a smartphone regularly sends data to a satellite shows fundamental lack of knowledge in some very basic physical understanding. The basic understanding should be: transmitting/sending = emitting energy (costly if a device runs on batteries), receiving/listening for a signal = almost for free nowadays. I also like the question because even if you have no idea how GPS actually works, you could quickly come up with the rough idea yourself given that you have a bunch of satellites that can emit arbitrary signals. Lots of room to show creative and analytical thinking here.

wonnage 5y ago
I have a hard time imagining engineers in any other field (e.g a structural engineer) would be getting asked questions about GPS as a proxy for general engineering knowhow.
- lazide 5y ago
  Do you have experience interviewing or seeing interview questions in those fields?
  - littlecranky67 5y ago
    Yes, you will be asked to showcase 2-3 side-projects such as houses, bridges and tunnels you built & designed in your backyard and discuss your design decisions on a whiteboard.
    - lazide 5y ago
      Not sure if serious?
    - rzzzt 5y ago
      Maybe a take-home exercise, like a small viaduct or a dome.
dpark 5y ago