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I was once asked "Can you do a quick fizzbuzz implementation on the white board for me" by an interviewer. I stood up, looked at the whiteboard and said "So it

by bbarn 12y ago

I was once asked "Can you do a quick fizzbuzz implementation on the white board for me" by an interviewer. I stood up, looked at the whiteboard and said "So it's, what.. multiples of three are fizz, five are buzz and both are fizzbuzz right?" and he said "Yep, nevermind, let's move on." There was a lot more technical, and a lot more practical stuff to that interview as well, but as someone with both dev and dev management positions on their resume, I appreciated that the interviewer just wanted to know if I'd prepared or at least been paying attention for the last few years with the easy opener. Would you even consider someone in this career field who didn't know what fizzbuzz was?

joesmo 12y ago
"Would you even consider someone in this career field who didn't know what fizzbuzz was?" Yes, of course. Why would not knowing what fizzbuzz is disqualify someone? Simply because they have not heard of it or not read the article on it means absolutely nothing. Not being able to do it, on the other hand, would obviously disqualify someone.
- tessierashpool 12y ago
  Same here. Maybe when I was reading all the FizzBuzz blog posts, they were busy doing something amazing.
je_bailey 12y ago
I'd say after 7 years as a professional software engineer. I had never had to do anything harder in an interview than show up. The companies I applied too had prior coworkers and managers who wanted me on their teams. Then I ended up in a company where the management was so dysfunctional that it had the overtones of an abusive relationship. They then laid me off. At that point, I was a Sr. Software Engineer, during the depression, with a 2 week old newborn, out of work, stressed, not sleeping, and I had never white boarded a class, no idea what fizzbuzz was, and the last design pattern conversation I had had been 2 years previous. I failed the interviews with some pretty decent companies. I got better. My learning experience with that, is that the majority of interviews I took were not to determine if I was actually good at my job. They were to determine if I was good at interviews.

by bbarn 12y ago

joesmo 12y ago

"Would you even consider someone in this career field who didn't know what fizzbuzz was?" Yes, of course. Why would not knowing what fizzbuzz is disqualify someone? Simply because they have not heard of it or not read the article on it means absolutely nothing. Not being able to do it, on the other hand, would obviously disqualify someone.

tessierashpool 12y ago
Same here. Maybe when I was reading all the FizzBuzz blog posts, they were busy doing something amazing.

je_bailey 12y ago

I'd say after 7 years as a professional software engineer. I had never had to do anything harder in an interview than show up. The companies I applied too had prior coworkers and managers who wanted me on their teams. Then I ended up in a company where the management was so dysfunctional that it had the overtones of an abusive relationship. They then laid me off. At that point, I was a Sr. Software Engineer, during the depression, with a 2 week old newborn, out of work, stressed, not sleeping, and I had never white boarded a class, no idea what fizzbuzz was, and the last design pattern conversation I had had been 2 years previous. I failed the interviews with some pretty decent companies. I got better. My learning experience with that, is that the majority of interviews I took were not to determine if I was actually good at my job. They were to determine if I was good at interviews.