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Just to be clear, token - does the supervisor have anything up his sleeve with "flawless?" The story that it took years, for example, to produce a "flawless" bi

Just to be clear, token - does the supervisor have anything up his sleeve with "flawless?" The story that it took years, for example, to produce a "flawless" binary search isn't as stupefying when you consider that many of the flaws dealt with things like integer overflow and floating point precision. If this guy wants this to work on a 4-bit microcontroller, for example, getting to 100 is going to be significantly trickier than what many would consider a straightforward problem.

tokenadult 14y ago
Thank you for asking the clarifying question. The hiring supervisor is just looking for a straightforward implementation of the problem specification. He showed me the C code that is the example in his mind of a correct C program. He was presenting this problem over dinner at a summer mathematics program http://www.epsiloncamp.org/ http://www.epsiloncamp.org/ where some counselors for the program, and even some STUDENTS who were of elementary school age were able to provide solutions he deemed correct. (He accepted as correct one student's Python program, noting that he doesn't know the details of Python, and I think the student's Python program would actually only print from 1 to 99, because of how Python indexes. But that would still be considered very well done in the hiring screen.) One of the counselors reproduced his model C code on the spot, taking less than three minutes to write it down with pencil and paper. AFTER EDIT: Responding to the second-submitted top-level comment, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4603819 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4603819 How could it be that one place is asking for that and turning him down with a working solution while another place is so desperate they just require a for-loop? I think what is going on in the story I heard being contrary to the stories you hear is that there are several echelons of jobs, and several echelons of computer science departments. The young hacker I know best had a work-sample test for an in-person interview in which the problem specification was, "Write code to implement a four-function calculator." He didn't have any problem with that, and thought the problem was easy. He also has NOT completed a degree in computer science, although he was pursuing one before he entered full-time employment at a different startup with a different hiring process. He is not afraid of work-sample tests, not at all. But he would (currently) be screened out of contention by requirements to possess a degree, which he does not yet have. Some other workplaces, perhaps places to get a steady job (and, crucially, visa status to remain in the United States), may get a lot of applicants who have actual earned CS degrees, but who have never acquired much independent coding ability. This is an empirical question, and the question I am trying to get a reality check on here. If you asked the EASY question asked by the hiring supervisor who told me his story to every CS grad who approaches you for a job, from any college and of any current visa status, are you sure that all without exception could pass that rather relaxed coding test?

tokenadult 14y ago

Thank you for asking the clarifying question. The hiring supervisor is just looking for a straightforward implementation of the problem specification. He showed me the C code that is the example in his mind of a correct C program. He was presenting this problem over dinner at a summer mathematics program http://www.epsiloncamp.org/ http://www.epsiloncamp.org/ where some counselors for the program, and even some STUDENTS who were of elementary school age were able to provide solutions he deemed correct. (He accepted as correct one student's Python program, noting that he doesn't know the details of Python, and I think the student's Python program would actually only print from 1 to 99, because of how Python indexes. But that would still be considered very well done in the hiring screen.) One of the counselors reproduced his model C code on the spot, taking less than three minutes to write it down with pencil and paper. AFTER EDIT: Responding to the second-submitted top-level comment, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4603819 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4603819 How could it be that one place is asking for that and turning him down with a working solution while another place is so desperate they just require a for-loop? I think what is going on in the story I heard being contrary to the stories you hear is that there are several echelons of jobs, and several echelons of computer science departments. The young hacker I know best had a work-sample test for an in-person interview in which the problem specification was, "Write code to implement a four-function calculator." He didn't have any problem with that, and thought the problem was easy. He also has NOT completed a degree in computer science, although he was pursuing one before he entered full-time employment at a different startup with a different hiring process. He is not afraid of work-sample tests, not at all. But he would (currently) be screened out of contention by requirements to possess a degree, which he does not yet have. Some other workplaces, perhaps places to get a steady job (and, crucially, visa status to remain in the United States), may get a lot of applicants who have actual earned CS degrees, but who have never acquired much independent coding ability. This is an empirical question, and the question I am trying to get a reality check on here. If you asked the EASY question asked by the hiring supervisor who told me his story to every CS grad who approaches you for a job, from any college and of any current visa status, are you sure that all without exception could pass that rather relaxed coding test?