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In a previous job of mine, we would show candidates a printout of some buggy code, and ask them to find the bugs. We would leave the room and let the candidate

In a previous job of mine, we would show candidates a printout of some buggy code, and ask them to find the bugs. We would leave the room and let the candidate work through it on their own. The code in question was basic algorithms and data structure stuff in C++, such as inserting into a doubly-linked list. I always thought it was a good exercise. Suits slow-thinkers and nervous people, and it's a good test of coding ability since if you can spot a bug then you can clearly read and understand the code.

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Sakos 4y ago
Man, I would rock that so hard and I wish more companies would do this. My current job did a live coding exercise in the interview, which went okay. The interviewer gave me a chance to iterate on the code and improve it after our call and send it by email an hour later. My solution by then was far better than what I'd had at the end of the interview, once I had a chance to gather my thoughts in peace and think everything through thoroughly.
- stevekemp 4y ago
  I've had a couple of sysadmin-interviews which were pretty interactive. You're presented with a laptop connected to a remote VM, and told "Fix MySQL", or "Rewrite the git history in this repository". Usually these are simple problems, which have obvious solutions. Every now and again you might get a surprise like an immutable-bit set on a file, or SELinux blocking access to specific files/paths, but the good thing about these kind of "challenges" is that you'll usually also have full google access. I guess l33tcoding isn't really a thing for sysadmins, but I do appreciate a (fair) simple test like that, especially being given the opportunity to talk through the process.
unwind 4y ago
So you basically implemented an analog version of Stack Overflow? :) That sounds really nice, once you get over the idea that people will show deliberately broken code (most folks on SO just don't know better, or at least that's my hope). Thanks for sharing!
mrtksn 4y ago
Was the bug in the algorithm resulting in wrong results? Was it a kind of implementation bug that happens due to peculiarities in the language/compiler?
- jamesdhutton 4y ago
  It was a bug in the algorithm, resulting in wrong results. For example, I recall that to fix the linked-list insertion code, you needed to add a line of code to increment a pointer.
alphalima 4y ago
Yes, I do exactly the same with a contrived example in a take-home coding assessment (with some failing test cases to not waste their time). Always seems to be a good indicator, especially of their ability to communicate technical concepts.
EdwardDiego 4y ago
Finding the bug was always my preferred interview problem. Followed by "this code needs refactoring, go nuts, and then let's talk about what you did and why afterwards".
twic 4y ago
I've been on both sides of this, and i think it's decent. But i have also heard people say "Oh my god! They asked me to do a debugging exercise - ON PAPER!!!? What were they thinking?!".

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Sakos 4y ago

Man, I would rock that so hard and I wish more companies would do this. My current job did a live coding exercise in the interview, which went okay. The interviewer gave me a chance to iterate on the code and improve it after our call and send it by email an hour later. My solution by then was far better than what I'd had at the end of the interview, once I had a chance to gather my thoughts in peace and think everything through thoroughly.

stevekemp 4y ago
I've had a couple of sysadmin-interviews which were pretty interactive. You're presented with a laptop connected to a remote VM, and told "Fix MySQL", or "Rewrite the git history in this repository". Usually these are simple problems, which have obvious solutions. Every now and again you might get a surprise like an immutable-bit set on a file, or SELinux blocking access to specific files/paths, but the good thing about these kind of "challenges" is that you'll usually also have full google access. I guess l33tcoding isn't really a thing for sysadmins, but I do appreciate a (fair) simple test like that, especially being given the opportunity to talk through the process.

unwind 4y ago

So you basically implemented an analog version of Stack Overflow? :) That sounds really nice, once you get over the idea that people will show deliberately broken code (most folks on SO just don't know better, or at least that's my hope). Thanks for sharing!

mrtksn 4y ago

Was the bug in the algorithm resulting in wrong results? Was it a kind of implementation bug that happens due to peculiarities in the language/compiler?

jamesdhutton 4y ago
It was a bug in the algorithm, resulting in wrong results. For example, I recall that to fix the linked-list insertion code, you needed to add a line of code to increment a pointer.

alphalima 4y ago

Yes, I do exactly the same with a contrived example in a take-home coding assessment (with some failing test cases to not waste their time). Always seems to be a good indicator, especially of their ability to communicate technical concepts.

EdwardDiego 4y ago

Finding the bug was always my preferred interview problem. Followed by "this code needs refactoring, go nuts, and then let's talk about what you did and why afterwards".

twic 4y ago

I've been on both sides of this, and i think it's decent. But i have also heard people say "Oh my god! They asked me to do a debugging exercise - ON PAPER!!!? What were they thinking?!".