4 ms·

Some interviewees talk up a big game. And some interviewers are too forgiving. "He fudged blah, but he probably meant factory pattern. Hired!" Fizz buzz you ca

Some interviewees talk up a big game. And some interviewers are too forgiving. "He fudged blah, but he probably meant factory pattern. Hired!" Fizz buzz you can't skate around. Either you know how to implement something, or you don't.

woah 12y ago
On the other hand, when I need a new job, I am going to simply spend a week with an interview algorithms book and cram on all the little riddles and exercises that people seem to want. I'd actually have to think for a minute on how to do fizz buzz right now, simply because it is so far remove from the actual engineering workflow.
- bronbron 12y ago
  > simply because it is so far remove from the actual engineering workflow. Err, what? Fizzbuzz is NOT a riddle. It's intentionally meant to be a stupid simple test, and everyone has written stupid simple code at some point. Even as a "senior engineer" you'll have to write dumb business logic code, even if it's only occasional. If you really struggle with fizzbuzz it would almost assuredly be a sign that you would really struggle to write quality software in a timely manner. It's also a sign that you really aren't familiar with even the basic control flow of your chosen language, which is similarly worrying. The only part of fizzbuzz that's "removed from the actual engineering workflow" is MAYBE the modulus operation, which I'm willing to bet most interviewers probably won't give a shit if you goof on the syntax a little and write "%" when you should've written "%%". And even then, a perfectly acceptable fizzbuzz can be written without using mod if you're not familiar with that basic arithmetic operation.
- ionforce 12y ago
  > I'd actually have to think for a minute on how to do fizz buzz right now, simply because it is so far remove from the actual engineering workflow. This type of attitude is highly suspicious. If you're not the kind of person who thinks fizz buzz is trivial, then there are actual red flags.
  - cookiecaper 12y ago
    Fizzbuzz may seem natural to people with an inclination for numbers or formal schooling that forcibly crams lots of math you'll never use down your throat, but some people haven't been taught about modulus operations and some people may not be very good at division and would take a while to try to reinvent mod. Neither of those things are necessarily really big problems if that person is going to be writing business logic (though you might want to have someone check any code they write which involves money). The idea of "fizzbuzz" is to show basic understanding of language control structures and flow. Better, more universal tests that actually use language constructs that are encountered in daily operation could definitely be devised to demonstrate the same fundamental concepts.

woah 12y ago

On the other hand, when I need a new job, I am going to simply spend a week with an interview algorithms book and cram on all the little riddles and exercises that people seem to want. I'd actually have to think for a minute on how to do fizz buzz right now, simply because it is so far remove from the actual engineering workflow.

bronbron 12y ago
> simply because it is so far remove from the actual engineering workflow. Err, what? Fizzbuzz is NOT a riddle. It's intentionally meant to be a stupid simple test, and everyone has written stupid simple code at some point. Even as a "senior engineer" you'll have to write dumb business logic code, even if it's only occasional. If you really struggle with fizzbuzz it would almost assuredly be a sign that you would really struggle to write quality software in a timely manner. It's also a sign that you really aren't familiar with even the basic control flow of your chosen language, which is similarly worrying. The only part of fizzbuzz that's "removed from the actual engineering workflow" is MAYBE the modulus operation, which I'm willing to bet most interviewers probably won't give a shit if you goof on the syntax a little and write "%" when you should've written "%%". And even then, a perfectly acceptable fizzbuzz can be written without using mod if you're not familiar with that basic arithmetic operation.
ionforce 12y ago
> I'd actually have to think for a minute on how to do fizz buzz right now, simply because it is so far remove from the actual engineering workflow. This type of attitude is highly suspicious. If you're not the kind of person who thinks fizz buzz is trivial, then there are actual red flags.
- cookiecaper 12y ago
  Fizzbuzz may seem natural to people with an inclination for numbers or formal schooling that forcibly crams lots of math you'll never use down your throat, but some people haven't been taught about modulus operations and some people may not be very good at division and would take a while to try to reinvent mod. Neither of those things are necessarily really big problems if that person is going to be writing business logic (though you might want to have someone check any code they write which involves money). The idea of "fizzbuzz" is to show basic understanding of language control structures and flow. Better, more universal tests that actually use language constructs that are encountered in daily operation could definitely be devised to demonstrate the same fundamental concepts.