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Yes, that's what I'm looking for what I ask this question. There's no wrong answer, but if your resume says you've developed projects in C and in Java but you
by eli 12y ago
Yes, that's what I'm looking for what I ask this question.
There's no wrong answer, but if your resume says you've developed projects in C and in Java but you are not able to articulate any reasons you might pick one over the other, I'm a little suspicious. It doesn't even really have to be languages; I mostly just want to hear you have a well-reasoned opinion on something.
- mechanical_fish 12y agoMost of the time, the factually correct answer to "why did you choose to work with Language X?" is "because when I arrived on the job, the existing software was implemented in X". Is that a well-reasoned opinion? "I'd like to pay the rent this month" is a good reason. "The company doesn't have the time to reimplement working software on a different platform" is a good reason. Of course, a well-socialized programmer understands that these answers, while truthful, are insufficient, and will have duly memorized a stock answer like "You pick C when you really need runtime performance and don't mind all the segmentation faults, otherwise you pick Java."
- eli 12y agoSure, that factually correct answer is fine, but you've changed the question to something less insightful. It wouldn't make sense to ask a candidate why they used language X for project Y unless they had a choice the decision. Most people don't. I know that. If you gave me that "stock answer" I'd ask followups. This isn't a trivia question with a secret "right answer" password. And hey, it's not the Worlds Greatest Interview Question, but I like it a whole lot better than "explain Quicksort" or "write out pseudocode for calculating a checksum on the whiteboard"