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Ask HN: Do coding interviews accurately assess candidates?

• davismwfl 11y ago
  Yes and no. Yes it can help understand where a candidate is confident or weak, but no it doesn't tell you if the candidate is qualified usually. I have had people flub the most basic of questions because of nerves or a stupid mental block etc. So I don't think this is a productive way of learning if the person is quality or not. But even a slight twist of making it mainly interactive can lead to many more interesting discoveries. Recognizing people might be nervous and giving them some helpful hints and working collaboratively with them to come up with ideas/solutions and letting them lead you where they feel is the right place helps you learn far more. This doesn't mean that you aren't pushing them to learn the extent of their capabilities, it just means you are doing it in a way in which you are hopefully getting the best/most from the person. I have also found that even when you need to say no to those that can't make the cut, if you followed the basic collaboration pattern they will generally spread good comments about the process and over a little time that helps you get better applicants.
• gt565k 11y ago
  It's better to give them a coding assignment with a deadline of say 24 or 48 hours. That way they can use resources available to them, just as they would at the workplace. Have them submit it to github as a pull request, and you can inspect the quality of the code. Follow up with a phone call to discuss the code and ask questions about it. That way you know the candidate actually wrote the code and you can be confident the quality of it represents the candidate's skills.