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As someone who worked professionally on a c++ application for two years around 2010, I took c++ off my resume. C++ is the ultimate "stump the chump" language wi

As someone who worked professionally on a c++ application for two years around 2010, I took c++ off my resume. C++ is the ultimate "stump the chump" language with tons of corner cases and esoteric gotchas. I hated it and I hate interviewers who do this. You all can have it. The reality is, in my area, Java enterprise development pays a lot more. I'm sure this is the case in plenty of other areas as well. Surprising but true.

skippyboxedhero 3y ago
Add it back. You know that any place like this is going to be full of people who spend all their time jerking themselves about how wonderful they are. Every place that I have interviewed where interviewers have done that has been full of people who are too maladjusted to work at a place that actually succeeds in producing anything.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
asveikau 3y ago
Two years probably isn't enough time to become good at c++. And in 2010 the standard was about to change a lot.
- zabzonk 3y ago
  probably true, but the copy constructor itself (bar when it can/must be elided) hasn't changed much over a long time.
  - asveikau 3y ago
    The "= delete;" thing was added, and move constructors are a big deal, but I agree.
sunsunsunsun 3y ago
I've been writing C++ for 4 years now professionally. I don't claim to be some kind of god at it but what am I supposed to do? Leave it off my resume because I don't know every intricate detail? I've used it to get shit done and make a company money, everything else is fluff.
- jfoutz 3y ago
  Every place that uses C++ uses some narrow fraction of the capabilities. Teams try to find an intersection of features that hopefully a majority of the team can understand. In an interview setting, keep answers contextual and tight. In my previous professional setting, we would solve the problem like this : <however>. Try to solve problems using only the subset you know. if you're pushed into a corner and they really want to overload [] or whatever, be clear that because, c++ is a large and sprawling language, for production code you'll need to check the spec, or consult with a teammate. With that understanding in place, you can take a stab at it. If you get dinged for that, you probably don't want to work there anyway.
- digging 3y ago
  > I've used it to get shit done and make a company money, everything else is fluff. I find it so frustrating how hard this is to sell in an interview. I understand how important it is to avoid bad hires, but I'm a self-taught web developer so I just flat out don't know a lot of CS "basics". I've been a professional SWE for 5 years, have made all of my teams very happy, have accomplished some very good work, and have dug into the docs enough to get the most out of the many tools/libraries I've had to use. But, sometimes there's a coding challenge on a topic I've just never seen before, and I'm dropped. As unrealistic as it is, I wish interviews had options for demonstrating my ability to learn a new tool quickly and make use of it. I'd spend a work day taking on a mock ticket for some new security procedure I've never touched before if it showed them that I can actually get the job done.
- BeetleB 3y ago
  I suppose it depends on the work the interviewer's company is doing, but when I last had a C++ job, knowing what a copy constructor was and the implications involved was important. I agree that asking details related to syntax are not good questions. But copying objects is a very natural thing to do in most languages, and if you don't have some idea of the implications, that's a red flag. Also: Some understanding on default copy constructors. I think it's OK not to know whether a default one is created for you or not, but just knowing that it might be is worthwhile to probe in an interview. Of course, these concepts are due to a poor language design, but what can you do? If your team uses C++, you need to deal with the poor design, and need people who understand the poor design.
zabzonk 3y ago
> C++ is the ultimate "stump the chump" language with tons of corner cases and esoteric gotchas. certainly, a bad interviewer can ask bad questions (for any language), but the copy constuctor (and call by value or call by reference) is one of the basic features of c++.

skippyboxedhero 3y ago

Add it back. You know that any place like this is going to be full of people who spend all their time jerking themselves about how wonderful they are. Every place that I have interviewed where interviewers have done that has been full of people who are too maladjusted to work at a place that actually succeeds in producing anything.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

asveikau 3y ago

Two years probably isn't enough time to become good at c++. And in 2010 the standard was about to change a lot.

zabzonk 3y ago
probably true, but the copy constructor itself (bar when it can/must be elided) hasn't changed much over a long time.
- asveikau 3y ago
  The "= delete;" thing was added, and move constructors are a big deal, but I agree.

sunsunsunsun 3y ago

I've been writing C++ for 4 years now professionally. I don't claim to be some kind of god at it but what am I supposed to do? Leave it off my resume because I don't know every intricate detail? I've used it to get shit done and make a company money, everything else is fluff.

jfoutz 3y ago
Every place that uses C++ uses some narrow fraction of the capabilities. Teams try to find an intersection of features that hopefully a majority of the team can understand. In an interview setting, keep answers contextual and tight. In my previous professional setting, we would solve the problem like this : <however>. Try to solve problems using only the subset you know. if you're pushed into a corner and they really want to overload [] or whatever, be clear that because, c++ is a large and sprawling language, for production code you'll need to check the spec, or consult with a teammate. With that understanding in place, you can take a stab at it. If you get dinged for that, you probably don't want to work there anyway.
digging 3y ago
> I've used it to get shit done and make a company money, everything else is fluff. I find it so frustrating how hard this is to sell in an interview. I understand how important it is to avoid bad hires, but I'm a self-taught web developer so I just flat out don't know a lot of CS "basics". I've been a professional SWE for 5 years, have made all of my teams very happy, have accomplished some very good work, and have dug into the docs enough to get the most out of the many tools/libraries I've had to use. But, sometimes there's a coding challenge on a topic I've just never seen before, and I'm dropped. As unrealistic as it is, I wish interviews had options for demonstrating my ability to learn a new tool quickly and make use of it. I'd spend a work day taking on a mock ticket for some new security procedure I've never touched before if it showed them that I can actually get the job done.
BeetleB 3y ago
I suppose it depends on the work the interviewer's company is doing, but when I last had a C++ job, knowing what a copy constructor was and the implications involved was important. I agree that asking details related to syntax are not good questions. But copying objects is a very natural thing to do in most languages, and if you don't have some idea of the implications, that's a red flag. Also: Some understanding on default copy constructors. I think it's OK not to know whether a default one is created for you or not, but just knowing that it might be is worthwhile to probe in an interview. Of course, these concepts are due to a poor language design, but what can you do? If your team uses C++, you need to deal with the poor design, and need people who understand the poor design.

zabzonk 3y ago

> C++ is the ultimate "stump the chump" language with tons of corner cases and esoteric gotchas. certainly, a bad interviewer can ask bad questions (for any language), but the copy constuctor (and call by value or call by reference) is one of the basic features of c++.