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"Does it not strike you that quite a few HN'ers openly admit that they would not pass the filter?" To be quite honest, this thread is having the opposite effec
by 2arrs2ells 15y ago
"Does it not strike you that quite a few HN'ers openly admit that they would not pass the filter?"
To be quite honest, this thread is having the opposite effect. I'm questioning the quality of HN contributors based on their inability to either comprehend the question or code a simple algorithm.
I passed similar coding questions in interviews before I'd ever written a line of code in my life (in a Microsoft PM internship interview). No one cared if I wrote a semicolon or not - the interview was asking if I understood basic concepts like loops and logic.
- kls 15y agoI don't think that anyone is arguing that they should not be able to code a simple algorithm. What the original article and other respectable individuals in the industry have been arguing for, is the best way to deduce ones ability to code a simple algorithm. Some people are just so uncomfortable and out of there element coding in an interview situation, that the assumption that it is a negative filter does not hold true. May good candidates get missed over this assumption. What many hiring managers like those at 37 Signal and pen.io have found out, is you can actually identify more quality individuals while deducing the same abilities without placing people in that unnatural coding environment. They are writing about it, because they have seen evidence that it is an unnecessary filter. It is not that one does not need to deduce whether the applicant can code but rather they believe they have found a better, simpler way to deduce it. Their observations coincide with what I have seen in the industry, so I am an advocate for such practices.