5 ms·

I think you're misinterpreting the use of "high level" here. It's not that the candidate needs "a high level of understanding", it's that they need "a high leve

by ac2u 12y ago

I think you're misinterpreting the use of "high level" here. It's not that the candidate needs "a high level of understanding", it's that they need "a high level understanding". "High" here is in reference to the level of abstraction. A high level understanding could mean something as simple as understanding the request-acknowledge nature of TCP, as opposed to the 'fire and forget' mechanism of UDP. As to the claim that virtually no javascript developer needs to know TCP, that becomes less of a truth the closer you get to experimenting with tech like websockets, which is increasingly becoming part of javascript developers' jobs. I think you're latching onto a narrative that you already made up about the poster before you even began this debate. There's a large leap between what the poster is saying "I ask a wide range of questions to catch red flags if they get all wrong", and what you're saying "the poster is saying that javascript devs NEED to know TCP! Obviously an elitist filtering mechanism!".

eropple 12y ago
Yes, this. Thank you for a reasonable reply to an unreasonable post. (And as to the rest of his very angry post, I'm not a front-end developer, I do platform work and what some folks call devops. I can tell you exactly how XMLHttpRequest works, in detail, with diagrams. I can also go on at length about the DOM, the travishamockery of CSS, as much JavaScript minutiae as one would like...I think a basic understanding of the world around us is important to being good at things. Being "a front-end programmer" doesn't mean you should be so incurious as to not know how things you don't touch every day but directly inform the things that you do actually work.)
lambda 12y ago
Exactly this. A "pass" on that question consists of mentioning HTTP, DNS, and (perhaps with some prompting about what protocols underlie HTTP) TCP. A strong pass involves being able to tell me that DNS is usually UDP based, and being able to describe what distinguishes TCP from UDP. A very strong pass involves being able to describe in detail recursive DNS queries, talk about the fact that DNS can use TCP rather than UDP for queries or replies larger than what fit in a single packet, being able to tell me a bit about how TCP congestion control, sequence numbers, acks, Nagle's Algorithm, and the like work. I should point out that I recently talked to a college junior who got a "very strong pass" on this question as a front-end intern candidate. If she can do that as a front-end oriented candidate with only a couple of years of experience in school, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a professional with several years of experience to have at least the basic knowledge that TCP exists. Some people are stronger in one area than another; so I cover a number of areas, and expect them to do well on a majority, but not all, of the questions. Even if you fail this question, just saying that you don't know anything about networking, if you do well at all of the others we will bring you in for the in-person interview; we have recently hired someone who simply said "I don't know" on this question, and was a bit fuzzy on the big-O questions, but did fine on on all of the rest.

by ac2u 12y ago

eropple 12y ago

Yes, this. Thank you for a reasonable reply to an unreasonable post. (And as to the rest of his very angry post, I'm not a front-end developer, I do platform work and what some folks call devops. I can tell you exactly how XMLHttpRequest works, in detail, with diagrams. I can also go on at length about the DOM, the travishamockery of CSS, as much JavaScript minutiae as one would like...I think a basic understanding of the world around us is important to being good at things. Being "a front-end programmer" doesn't mean you should be so incurious as to not know how things you don't touch every day but directly inform the things that you do actually work.)

lambda 12y ago

Exactly this. A "pass" on that question consists of mentioning HTTP, DNS, and (perhaps with some prompting about what protocols underlie HTTP) TCP. A strong pass involves being able to tell me that DNS is usually UDP based, and being able to describe what distinguishes TCP from UDP. A very strong pass involves being able to describe in detail recursive DNS queries, talk about the fact that DNS can use TCP rather than UDP for queries or replies larger than what fit in a single packet, being able to tell me a bit about how TCP congestion control, sequence numbers, acks, Nagle's Algorithm, and the like work. I should point out that I recently talked to a college junior who got a "very strong pass" on this question as a front-end intern candidate. If she can do that as a front-end oriented candidate with only a couple of years of experience in school, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a professional with several years of experience to have at least the basic knowledge that TCP exists. Some people are stronger in one area than another; so I cover a number of areas, and expect them to do well on a majority, but not all, of the questions. Even if you fail this question, just saying that you don't know anything about networking, if you do well at all of the others we will bring you in for the in-person interview; we have recently hired someone who simply said "I don't know" on this question, and was a bit fuzzy on the big-O questions, but did fine on on all of the rest.