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Programmers are confessing their coding sins to protest a broken job interview process (theoutline.com)

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[–]AbortusLuciferumit's all about empathy 20 ポイント21 ポイント  (6子コメント)

This makes me feel much less like an impostor. I need to look up how to do basic things all the time. How do you iterate through an array in jQuery again? was it array.forEach(callback, value)? No that was javascript. Was it array.each do |value, index|? No that's ruby. (I had to look those up to make this example lol)

See, the thing about programming is that the more you learn the more "languages" you speak. If you're multilingual you know what it's like to say a word that would be right in another language but isn't right in the one you're using. "bench" and "bank" are the same in portuguese ("banco"), so I might accidentally say that I went to the bench to pay my bills. Things like that.

[–]QuintinStone⊰ 👣 Pro-sock, Anti-chocobo 🐤 ⊱ 14 ポイント15 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Some people think devs rely too much on IDEs to auto-complete. The fact is that there's simply too much stuff in any mature language. Way too much for any normal personal to memorize. Libraries as they age can grow and grow and grow. My memory, on the other hand, just keeps getting worse.

[–]climbandmaintain 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (4子コメント)

And in JavaScript you're better off using babel combined with for (let x of array) because forEach isn't always implemented right and I think it has some weird iteration properties IIRC.

And yeah I agree. This job interview process is not only hellish, it's stupid.

[–]AbortusLuciferumit's all about empathy 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (3子コメント)

To be fair maybe that interview process would be good back when America was Great, i.e. the 60s when people really did write code on paper.

[–]climbandmaintain 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Not even then. Because you can get a feel for how good or familiar with a concept a programmer is. You don't need to always force these one hour time constraints on developers. Are you developing at that pace as a company? Well you fucked up at a strategic level if that's the case. And you will get poorer performance from your workers.

I did poorly at one interview because it didn't occur to me to use a map (dict in Python, or just a regular old JavaScript object) for the Game of Life rather than an array of spaces. It's obvious in retrospect but at the time the time crunch meant I didn't think of it.

But if I ask you the right set of questions I can probe your coding knowledge without making you write a line of code.

For instance: how would you implement a circular buffer in various languages? What is a circular buffer and why would you use it? Can this concept be extended to full objects? How would you implement that?

[–]AbortusLuciferumit's all about empathy 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (1子コメント)

map (dict in Python, or just a regular old JavaScript object)

Jesus man we call it a hash over at ruby. So many names for the same damn thing!

But if I ask you the right set of questions I can probe your coding knowledge without making you write a line of code.

For instance: how would you implement a circular buffer in various languages? What is a circular buffer and why would you use it? Can this concept be extended to full objects? How would you implement that?

I agree. Also what's a circular buffer.

[–]climbandmaintain 5 ポイント6 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Ahhh predominantly scripting experience, that'd be why you don't know what a circular buffer is :) Low level ftw! Lol. (I work almost exclusively in JavaScript and Python now >.>)

Circular buffers are arrays where you index into them at index modulo the array length. They're a common C/C++ feature when memory is short or you're implementing a digital filter. They can also be useful if you KNOW you're not going to care about data past a certain point and, again, you want to save on some memory.

The object equivalent, IMO, is object pooling.

[–]hmltnbrn 9 ポイント10 ポイント  (1子コメント)

I have this problem all of the time. I'm not good with people, and showing off technical skills while a person is staring at me and judging every little thing I do is ridiculous. Even if they allow you to check the Internet for syntax, it's no doubt looked down upon if you have to look up something really basic. It makes you look incompetent.

The best companies I interview at give coding take home tests. That's how it should be done. You still have to do it, but without the sweat and sighs from the interviewer over some trivial error.

And I'm a white man. I can only imagine what it must be like for a minority.

[–]climbandmaintain 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I am good with people but I fuck up most technical interviews because of the stress and time pressure involved.

Take home challenges are definitely the best, IMO. Unless the problem is bizarre or esoteric.

One thing I definitely hated was a company that had me take an online quiz. A fucking quiz. With all the bullshit minutia that doesn't matter (and some non-bullshit minutia that does).

[–]BalderSion 12 ポイント13 ポイント  (3子コメント)

This also reminds me of yesterday's story of CPB quizzing a programmer before letting him into the country.

[–]my_mo_is_lurk 7 ポイント8 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yeah, I saw that and thought it was pretty scary because I would've most likely failed really bad -even though I've been working full time as an engineer for the last 4 years... Like, I'm sorry, but I haven't even seen a binary tree outside of school.

[–]nosotros_road_sodium 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (1子コメント)

CBP = Customs and Border Protection

CPB = Corporation for Public Broadcasting, basically the funders of PBS and NPR shows.

[–]BalderSion 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

True.

My Dyslexia is showing.

[–]BoringWebDev 5 ポイント6 ポイント  (0子コメント)

am developer

i lookup create table syntax in mysql because i do it so rarely.

[–]Angel-Kat 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I remember one interview question about using vector mathematics to determine collision mechanics. I wrote an entire software library years ago to do the same thing for fun. I had no freaking clue how to do it off the top of my head though. I have a collection of math books nearby whenever I code.

After trying and feeling like I failed at all these interview tests, I gave up trying to get into the tech industry. It's really demoralizing, especially going in as a woman and feeling like I have to work twice as hard to prove myself. Now, I just code and hack hardware for fun at home while I teach grade school. I'm really glad I get to work with people instead of machines all day in retrospect. :)

[–]Laxbro9285 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

that article did a complete 180 out of nowhere...