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What questions to ask when hiring a Front End Developer

1 points by kedargj 12y ago

MichaelCrawford 12y ago
Can you tell the difference between shit and Shinola? But seriously... Ask them to write a modest Javascript program, but not one that is commonly done - so not like rollover links or drop-down menus. Don't make them do it on a whiteboard. Give them a computer and let them do it at their own pace. Put all the usual tools on it - Firebug and so on. However, observe them while they are developing the program. Do they actually _use_ any of those tools? If not, either they are 1337, or they don't actually know that those tools even exist. I am completely convinced that most JS coders don't even know there is such a thing as the Javascript console.
pedalpete 12y ago
If you're asking 'is this a good interview question', I'd suggest no. A few reasons. 1) I've only done a few code sample interviews, and some I've really enjoyed. But I had two which were open ended like this and just said "design a system that does x". Well, how far do I go in that design? If I spend two hours doing something fairly simple, and somebody else takes a day and ends up with the same and a third person takes a day and ends up with less than I did. As an employee, would you be able to tell who spent what amount of time? Would I loose out because I don't have as much time to spend as person X? 2) 'similar to Wikipedia on Android'. Great, I don't have an android device. Maybe I can find a video of it online, but will I get the nuance of the interface you're asking me to design 3) A simple application to browse titles, might be too simple, I could just create a list that grabs some json from a server and displays it. Is that really all you need to judge a front-end dev? You want to test their javascript and css, so give them a moderate interface design, tell them to implement feature X, have that feature include something like a filter function with animation. Something that lets them show you in about 10 minutes, that they know their craft. One suggestion on a previous HN post that I tried for fun, and it worked well was to make a simple timer that you could change the direction of the clock output from count down to count up. Took about 20 minutes.

1 points by kedargj 12y ago

Can you tell the difference between shit and Shinola? But seriously... Ask them to write a modest Javascript program, but not one that is commonly done - so not like rollover links or drop-down menus. Don't make them do it on a whiteboard. Give them a computer and let them do it at their own pace. Put all the usual tools on it - Firebug and so on. However, observe them while they are developing the program. Do they actually _use_ any of those tools? If not, either they are 1337, or they don't actually know that those tools even exist. I am completely convinced that most JS coders don't even know there is such a thing as the Javascript console.

pedalpete 12y ago

If you're asking 'is this a good interview question', I'd suggest no. A few reasons. 1) I've only done a few code sample interviews, and some I've really enjoyed. But I had two which were open ended like this and just said "design a system that does x". Well, how far do I go in that design? If I spend two hours doing something fairly simple, and somebody else takes a day and ends up with the same and a third person takes a day and ends up with less than I did. As an employee, would you be able to tell who spent what amount of time? Would I loose out because I don't have as much time to spend as person X? 2) 'similar to Wikipedia on Android'. Great, I don't have an android device. Maybe I can find a video of it online, but will I get the nuance of the interface you're asking me to design 3) A simple application to browse titles, might be too simple, I could just create a list that grabs some json from a server and displays it. Is that really all you need to judge a front-end dev? You want to test their javascript and css, so give them a moderate interface design, tell them to implement feature X, have that feature include something like a filter function with animation. Something that lets them show you in about 10 minutes, that they know their craft. One suggestion on a previous HN post that I tried for fun, and it worked well was to make a simple timer that you could change the direction of the clock output from count down to count up. Took about 20 minutes.