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I would second this. Think of it like interviewing. If you do five to fifteen programming interviews you really get a feel for how programming interviews are
by icefox 12y ago
I would second this. Think of it like interviewing. If you do five to fifteen programming interviews you really get a feel for how programming interviews are conducted, the type of problems, the amount of time the problem should take. Most importantly you get a feel for the questions that are asked can for example abandon a solution that while it would work would take longer than the interview time and thus can recognize that there must be a faster solution you should look for.
Simply by doing a number of practice and real interviews you will be much better at interviewing. You as a programmer are probably not that fundamentally better, but you the interviewer are.
And if you don't like programming interviews just go lookup how people prepare for Jeopardy, most that appear on the show don't just show up, but have methods for training.
- vonmoltke 12y ago> Simply by doing a number of practice and real interviews you will be much better at interviewing. You as a programmer are probably not that fundamentally better, but you the interviewer are. That is true, but I see that as a serious weakness in programming interviews rather than a feature. If you can, or even need, to train yourself in things that have no bearing on the job you are being hired for, the interview is flawed. I understand that, to some degree, this is unavoidable. It seems like there is a drive to structure interviews like programming competitions or Jeopardy. However, the latter two are games; an interview should be a well-constructed test, not a game. I do think a large number of non-US people participate in these competitions because of their relationship to current hiring practices.