Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [interview]

OFF TOPIC QUESTIONS ARE NOT SUPPORTED! DO NOT ASK ANY QUESTIONS WHERE YOU FEEL THIS TAG APPLIES!

OFF TOPIC QUESTIONS ARE NOT SUPPORTED!

THIS TAG IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING CLEANED UP AND REMOVED. Interview questions are usually downvoted, closed and deleted by the community, so better stay away from asking them.

For more information, see:

290 questions
154
votes
11 answers

Is my work on a developer test being taken advantage of?

I am looking for a job and have applied to a number of positions. One employer responded. I had a pretty lengthy phone interview (perhaps an hour +) and they then set me up with a developer test. I was told that the test was estimated to take…
CodeWarrior
  • 1,253
  • 4
  • 11
  • 11
152
votes
13 answers

Is it just me or is this a baffling tech interview question?

Background I was just asked in a tech interview to write an algorithm to traverse an "object" (notice the quotes) where A is equal to B and B is equal to C and A is equal to C. That's it. That is all the information I was given. I asked the…
Matt Cashatt
  • 3,315
  • 5
  • 24
  • 35
146
votes
15 answers

Are 9 to 5 programmers looked down upon?

I would consider myself a 9 to 5 programmer. What I mean by this, is that I have a programming job, but after I leave work, I leave my work there and do not take it home. I very much enjoy my career choice, and I enjoy the work that I do at my…
B Johnson
  • 301
  • 2
  • 4
  • 5
128
votes
11 answers

Is it appropriate for interviewers to ask candidates for their Stack Exchange user name?

Would you consider it appropriate if you were asked for your Stack Exchange username in a software job interview (or as a pre-interview screening question)? To me, it seems like a very reasonable request, and one that would be extremely informative…
kmote
  • 3,322
  • 6
  • 24
  • 33
101
votes
16 answers

How can I tell in an interview if a programmer is passionate about programming?

While most interview questions are focused on current knowledge of a candidate or check his/her skill to solve algorithmic problems I would like to hire a developer who is passionate about programming. What if instead of asking questions like What…
Nutel
  • 1,491
  • 4
  • 14
  • 13
91
votes
15 answers

Tricky logic puzzles - Are they really useful in assessing programming skills?

In the last interview I attended, I was asked to solve a puzzle where I was expected to measure exactly blah liters of water given two buckets with capacities - blah and blah liters respectively. I was unable to solve the puzzle in given time (~5…
missingfaktor
  • 3,906
  • 1
  • 24
  • 31
84
votes
15 answers

How much help should I give during technical interviews?

I'm asked to perform or sit in during many technical interviews. We ask logic questions and simple programming problems that the interviewee is expected to be able to solve on paper. (I would rather they have access to a keyboard, but that is a…
kojiro
  • 2,105
  • 1
  • 15
  • 29
82
votes
18 answers

What is the best way to discern an excellent programmer in a job interview?

In the setting of an interview: What is the best way to reliably identify when somebody is an excellent programmer. By this I mean he is one of those that is 10-15 times more efficient / rapid / better than his peers towards the lower end of the…
Claudiu
  • 779
  • 1
  • 6
  • 12
82
votes
8 answers

What is the relevance of resumes in the age of GitHub, Stack Exchange, Coursera, Udacity, blogs, etc.?

My resume is no longer relevant. It can no longer contain an adequate description of my technical abilities. One can get a much better sense of what I am capable of by looking at my GitHub repositories, my Stack Exchange profiles, and the various…
user7146
81
votes
12 answers

How do you interview someone with more experience than you?

The company I'm working for is looking to hire a senior developer with more experience than me, and they expect me to do the technical part of the interview. I've only been programming a few years and am not sure I have the knowledge needed to…
Rachel
  • 23,979
  • 16
  • 91
  • 159
69
votes
8 answers

Asking for a code sample of the company at an interview

Asking a job seeker to show some code is a fairly common practice for a software company. However, would it be acceptable for the candidate to ask the interviewer to show him a small piece of code that he thinks is well written?
Simon Bergot
  • 7,930
  • 3
  • 35
  • 54
69
votes
7 answers

The Joel Test's equivalent for measuring a programmer

I understand that to measure a project or code, we can use The Joel Test, but is there any simple standard test (like The Joel Test) that is able to measure and filter how good a programmer is? My plan is to have this test as a quick filter first…
Rudy
  • 1,109
  • 1
  • 8
  • 14
68
votes
22 answers

What do you do when you encounter an idiotic interview question?

I was interviewing with a "too proud of my java skills"-looking person. He asked me "What is your knowledge on Java IO classes.. say.. hash maps?" He asked me to write a piece of java code on paper - instantiate a class and call one of the…
user19224
60
votes
16 answers

FizzBuzz - really?

When it comes to "interview test" questions, the subject of FizzBuzz often comes up. There is also a Coding Horror post about it. Now, if you bother reading sites such as this, you are probably less likely to be in the demographic of programmers who…
DanSingerman
  • 1,681
  • 3
  • 15
  • 14
58
votes
3 answers

How can I test PHP skills in a interview?

My company needs to hire a PHP developer, but nobody has PHP knowledge in my company and we find difficult to test for PHP skills. If it were a C/Java developer I would ask him to write a quick implementation of the Game of Life, but PHP is a…
Mascarpone
  • 765
  • 1
  • 6
  • 8
1
2 3
…
19 20