4 ms·
We try to hire seasoned linux admins for our ops team. This has become difficult. I start with this technical interview question so I can calibrate quickly: "
by digitalsushi 4y ago
We try to hire seasoned linux admins for our ops team. This has become difficult.
I start with this technical interview question so I can calibrate quickly:
"If I run the following two commands:
mkdir a b c;mv *
What happens?"
One person so far has asked if globbing was active. Like half of people get the answer right if they assume it is.
This question is deemed as "not fair", though, because it assumes a linux admin would know about shell globbing. So we're trying to find a modern equivalent that is somehow relevant, even though we're literally hiring people to know some shell.
- anon50118810 4y agoYou didn't ask for advice, but I have some Linux experience and it does feel a little like a trick question since you would normally never do that. Probably I'd give 100% credit for answering the question as asked, and 90% credit if they can explain to you what happened after running it in a terminal or if you tell them the end result. If you need good questions, maybe ask your current admins the five most common operations or pain points they have every day and then base your questions on that.
- throwaway675309 4y agoYeesh this feels more like a trivia question and less like a real problem. You should be focusing on a desired objective in the linux environment and then allow them to outline the steps to get to that objective.
- hnfong 4y agoIf half the people get the answer right, what's the problem?
- anon50118810 4y agoIf the question is irrelevant or about unimportant trivia then it's a bad signal to use to reject people. An extreme example would be rejecting any candidate who fails to call a coin flip correctly.