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From my limited experience the right answer is always 7. It's a BS question so yes there is a right answer. Here's why: When I see resumes, the only people w

From my limited experience the right answer is always 7. It's a BS question so yes there is a right answer. Here's why: When I see resumes, the only people who put 10s are recent college graduates. They put a 10 for Java and then don't know what a hashCode is. This demonstrates more about the question than about the candidate I've also interviewed at a few places, been asked the 0-10 question on a set of languages and been told that 5 "wasn't what they were looking for" and they wanted "10s only." This demonstrates more about the company than about the question. The right answer is 7. It says "I'm good, but not Linus Torvalds" and if anyone asks a follow just say "I'm never really sure what to say there." It doesn't matter if your answer means anything because the question doesn't

nostrademons 15y ago
I recall a blog post where someone remarked that "7 is really a 3". Precisely because of Dunning-Kruger: people who don't know how big the field is just say 7 because it seems reasonably high and yet doesn't imply mastery. That'd imply that game-theoretically, the right answer is 8. ;-) Enough to tell the interviewer that you've gotten past 7, yet not so high to make them think that you think you know everything. (Personally, I've taken to saying "Judge for yourself" and listing my accomplishments. That's what they're really interested in, they're going to do it anyway, and this way I show enough confidence in my own abilities that I'm willing to let others judge them.)
rodly 15y ago
"When I see resumes, the only people who put 10s are recent college graduates. They put a 10 for Java and then don't know what a hashCode is." Please tell me what colleges these graduates are coming from so I know never to hire/work with any of them, ever.
- jiggy2011 15y ago
  I don't think that's a specific problem with the colleges themselves. It's just when you spend 3/4 years in that kind of bubble and you get getting good marks on all your assignments you are naturally going to think "I've mastered Java" based on evaluating the only evidence presented to you. Of course there is a difference between knowledge and aptitude here. Would a candidate who doesn't know what .hashCode() does but who after a 10 minute explanation says "yes, I understand now makes sense" be a bad hire? I program a lot of Java but I am unfamiliar with huge amounts of both the language and standard API (especially the parts dealing with 'enterprise' stuff and concurrency). This is mainly because I explicitly design my Java apps around a shared nothing/POJO-JPA configuration and I don't use RMI , Reflection or JMS. Does that mean I am a bad Java programmer?
Drbble 15y ago
I he only legitimate use for that question is to have an easy excuse to no-hire an idiot who says "10". The correct answer is "I dunno, what does 5 mean" to show humility and an insistence in meaning in metrics, and if pushed say 6, and trust that decision makers at anywhere you care to work ignore the dufus who insisted on a number.

nostrademons 15y ago

I recall a blog post where someone remarked that "7 is really a 3". Precisely because of Dunning-Kruger: people who don't know how big the field is just say 7 because it seems reasonably high and yet doesn't imply mastery. That'd imply that game-theoretically, the right answer is 8. ;-) Enough to tell the interviewer that you've gotten past 7, yet not so high to make them think that you think you know everything. (Personally, I've taken to saying "Judge for yourself" and listing my accomplishments. That's what they're really interested in, they're going to do it anyway, and this way I show enough confidence in my own abilities that I'm willing to let others judge them.)

rodly 15y ago

"When I see resumes, the only people who put 10s are recent college graduates. They put a 10 for Java and then don't know what a hashCode is." Please tell me what colleges these graduates are coming from so I know never to hire/work with any of them, ever.

jiggy2011 15y ago
I don't think that's a specific problem with the colleges themselves. It's just when you spend 3/4 years in that kind of bubble and you get getting good marks on all your assignments you are naturally going to think "I've mastered Java" based on evaluating the only evidence presented to you. Of course there is a difference between knowledge and aptitude here. Would a candidate who doesn't know what .hashCode() does but who after a 10 minute explanation says "yes, I understand now makes sense" be a bad hire? I program a lot of Java but I am unfamiliar with huge amounts of both the language and standard API (especially the parts dealing with 'enterprise' stuff and concurrency). This is mainly because I explicitly design my Java apps around a shared nothing/POJO-JPA configuration and I don't use RMI , Reflection or JMS. Does that mean I am a bad Java programmer?

Drbble 15y ago

I he only legitimate use for that question is to have an easy excuse to no-hire an idiot who says "10". The correct answer is "I dunno, what does 5 mean" to show humility and an insistence in meaning in metrics, and if pushed say 6, and trust that decision makers at anywhere you care to work ignore the dufus who insisted on a number.