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What bothers me about this industry is that if you were to interview for an iOS position at a place like FB and suggest a KISS type solution, say using PONSOs f

What bothers me about this industry is that if you were to interview for an iOS position at a place like FB and suggest a KISS type solution, say using PONSOs for the data model, you would immediately be shown the door.

forrestthewoods 12y ago
Since I had to look it up and I doubt I'm alone: KISS - Keep it simple, stupid PONSO - Plain ol NSObject
lpsz 12y ago
A great interviewer wouldn't be hung up on the "officially correct" way, but would instead expect the person to be aware of the different solutions and chat about the trade-offs. A more likely case to the one you're describing would be someone suggesting implementing a search box with an O(N) search through an array (and offering no alternatives), and then being shown out the door.
mikeash 12y ago
You would? Why?
zippergz 12y ago
As someone who has interviewed software engineers at a place like FB, I disagree. Sure, if you came in and stridently argued that this is the only possible solution, or if you couldn't explain the reasons you prefer it, or the tradeoffs involved, that's a bad sign. Technical interviews are all about understanding how you approach problems, what kinds of solutions you're comfortable with, and how flexible you can be in the face of the types of constraints we encounter in our day to day jobs. So yes, someone who only knows one solution, and a non-standrd one at that, isn't likely to do well. But someone who knows the "rules" (aka the standard patterns) and can make a well-reasoned argument for breaking them in a specific situation is exactly the kind of engineer I'm looking for.
potatolicious 12y ago
You really wouldn't. The iOS dev community has no love for Core Data, despite it being the official "correct" way to implement data models. The existence and popularity of libs like Realm is proof that not only is the community not married to the notion of Core Data, but there is a lot of noise being made in alternative data model layers. If you are shown the door for suggesting a KISS solution and avoiding a buttload of dependencies and performance hits, consider it a bullet dodged, since odds are those people are terrible.
myko 12y ago
Really, you get negative interview feedback for suggesting the use of a PONSO? As opposed to what, an NSDictionary/NSManagedObject/perhaps a struct? No wonder I'm terrible at interviews.

forrestthewoods 12y ago

Since I had to look it up and I doubt I'm alone: KISS - Keep it simple, stupid PONSO - Plain ol NSObject

lpsz 12y ago

A great interviewer wouldn't be hung up on the "officially correct" way, but would instead expect the person to be aware of the different solutions and chat about the trade-offs. A more likely case to the one you're describing would be someone suggesting implementing a search box with an O(N) search through an array (and offering no alternatives), and then being shown out the door.

mikeash 12y ago

You would? Why?

zippergz 12y ago

As someone who has interviewed software engineers at a place like FB, I disagree. Sure, if you came in and stridently argued that this is the only possible solution, or if you couldn't explain the reasons you prefer it, or the tradeoffs involved, that's a bad sign. Technical interviews are all about understanding how you approach problems, what kinds of solutions you're comfortable with, and how flexible you can be in the face of the types of constraints we encounter in our day to day jobs. So yes, someone who only knows one solution, and a non-standrd one at that, isn't likely to do well. But someone who knows the "rules" (aka the standard patterns) and can make a well-reasoned argument for breaking them in a specific situation is exactly the kind of engineer I'm looking for.

potatolicious 12y ago

You really wouldn't. The iOS dev community has no love for Core Data, despite it being the official "correct" way to implement data models. The existence and popularity of libs like Realm is proof that not only is the community not married to the notion of Core Data, but there is a lot of noise being made in alternative data model layers. If you are shown the door for suggesting a KISS solution and avoiding a buttload of dependencies and performance hits, consider it a bullet dodged, since odds are those people are terrible.

myko 12y ago

Really, you get negative interview feedback for suggesting the use of a PONSO? As opposed to what, an NSDictionary/NSManagedObject/perhaps a struct? No wonder I'm terrible at interviews.