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You might consider whether this is really a valid test, or just something that you _think_ truly evaluates whether a candidate can do the job. In my experience

You might consider whether this is really a valid test, or just something that you _think_ truly evaluates whether a candidate can do the job. In my experience hiring, it's not that valuable. I do think some kind of screening for basic skills is valuable at the low/inexperienced end, but writing code in front of an expectant audience may not be it. I have written hundreds of thousands of lines of shipping code, and I've faced this kind of code-for-an-interview process repeatedly. The last time I had to do it, I found that I actually choked on a simple string reverse problem. It was a really basic algorithm; there was absolutely no difficulty with my understanding of how the algorithm worked, or how to code it. I just choked. I was talking to three people on Skype with a shared whiteboard, and I had to give up. It was very frustrating. This had more to do with the fact that I had been out of work for several months and was facing a huge amount of stress about things like paying the mortgage than it did with my actual abilities on the job.

partisan 11y ago
What should I be doing to find a candidate who can code and understands basic concepts without asking them to demonstrate that ability to me? I've been burned by people who talk a good game.
- paulrpotts 11y ago
  I don't have a great simple answer for this. I think it some combination of maybe looking at code samples, talking to previous employers, maybe doing some code in a timed exercise, either on or off-site, or maybe even contracting with a prospective employee to pay them to work on some small trial piece of code. I agree with you that there are definitely candidates out there who are all talk. I'm just not sure demanding code on a whiteboard during the interview itself is really a foolproof proxy for "smart and gets things done." I think it might weed out obvious duds but it might also weed out some people who might be having a bad day. It also is, I think, quite possible to game this kind of interview question, by studying some of the many books of coding interview questions coming out and just memorizing some of them.

partisan 11y ago

What should I be doing to find a candidate who can code and understands basic concepts without asking them to demonstrate that ability to me? I've been burned by people who talk a good game.

paulrpotts 11y ago
I don't have a great simple answer for this. I think it some combination of maybe looking at code samples, talking to previous employers, maybe doing some code in a timed exercise, either on or off-site, or maybe even contracting with a prospective employee to pay them to work on some small trial piece of code. I agree with you that there are definitely candidates out there who are all talk. I'm just not sure demanding code on a whiteboard during the interview itself is really a foolproof proxy for "smart and gets things done." I think it might weed out obvious duds but it might also weed out some people who might be having a bad day. It also is, I think, quite possible to game this kind of interview question, by studying some of the many books of coding interview questions coming out and just memorizing some of them.