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The important thing to screen a software engineer for is not knowledge but the strength of their problem solving and ability to build mental models of problems.

The important thing to screen a software engineer for is not knowledge but the strength of their problem solving and ability to build mental models of problems. Whiteboard interviews are a good way to evaluate these skills - assuming the candidate hasn't seen this particular problem before and the interviewer understands that this is what they're supposed to look for. Goodhart's law applies - the measure becomes a target and it ceases to be a good measure. People who have weak problem solving skills or poor abilities to form mental models still want high paying software jobs so they "grind leetcode" until they can pass these interviews. Then over time these grinders get high enough up they start becoming interviewers themselves and they don't understand that they're even supposed to screen for talent, they conduct the interview like a memory test since to them that's what it was. In spite of this, there's no better interview type I've seen proposed given the constraints most companies are under (don't waste candidate's time, have a consistent rubric that HR likes, etc.) so for now we're going to keep using it.

drewcoo 2y ago
> Then over time these grinders get high enough up they start becoming interviewers themselves and they don't understand that they're even supposed to screen for talent, they conduct the interview like a memory test since to them that's what it was. They say As hire Bs and Bs hire Cs . . . and to combat that we've added more leetcode to the interview process.
kristopolous 2y ago
There's a bunch of better ones that are readily accessible. Ask the candidate to build a known quantity like say, a calculator, calendar, whatever or give them a bunch of code and have them modify it in some way or discover a bug. Something closer to building software. Leet code is too far away from it and the performance on it too poorly correlated with actual suitability.
Tao3300 2y ago
> Then over time these grinders get high enough up they start becoming interviewers themselves and they don't understand that they're even supposed to screen for talent, they conduct the interview like a memory test since to them that's what it was. It follows that better leetcode scoring is a good indicator of who can be replaced with LLM.
mihaitodor 2y ago
> In spite of this, there's no better interview type I've seen proposed given the constraints most companies are under Yeah, right. Why would companies truly care about this issue and put any effort into making their hiring process feel less hostile when they still have loads of candidates who are more than willing to go through whatever tests they get asked during interviews? It's a leaky bucket and they're happy with the status quo while developers keep grinding away... I doubt it will change anytime soon, but I'm glad I can afford to put my foot down and refuse to do such interviews when I need to find new jobs.

drewcoo 2y ago

> Then over time these grinders get high enough up they start becoming interviewers themselves and they don't understand that they're even supposed to screen for talent, they conduct the interview like a memory test since to them that's what it was. They say As hire Bs and Bs hire Cs . . . and to combat that we've added more leetcode to the interview process.

kristopolous 2y ago

There's a bunch of better ones that are readily accessible. Ask the candidate to build a known quantity like say, a calculator, calendar, whatever or give them a bunch of code and have them modify it in some way or discover a bug. Something closer to building software. Leet code is too far away from it and the performance on it too poorly correlated with actual suitability.

Tao3300 2y ago

> Then over time these grinders get high enough up they start becoming interviewers themselves and they don't understand that they're even supposed to screen for talent, they conduct the interview like a memory test since to them that's what it was. It follows that better leetcode scoring is a good indicator of who can be replaced with LLM.

mihaitodor 2y ago

> In spite of this, there's no better interview type I've seen proposed given the constraints most companies are under Yeah, right. Why would companies truly care about this issue and put any effort into making their hiring process feel less hostile when they still have loads of candidates who are more than willing to go through whatever tests they get asked during interviews? It's a leaky bucket and they're happy with the status quo while developers keep grinding away... I doubt it will change anytime soon, but I'm glad I can afford to put my foot down and refuse to do such interviews when I need to find new jobs.