undefined | Better HN

0 pointskokokokoko7y ago0 comments

It's because they are basically just testing IQ. It's not actually programming knowledge they care about. If a person has a CS/EE degree and has been professionally programming for a few years they probably have enough domain knowledge regardless. Then the rest of the interview is testing soft skills.

0 comments

rhexs7y ago

I think it’s exactly that, willingness to conform, and a very effective filter on age.

I know Google does a lot of metrics on hiring. Have they correlated their practice with IQ anywhere? Guessing nothing public as that would trigger a firestorm.

At the end of the day it’s just the cognitive elite trying to hire the cognitive elite.

jammygit7y ago

They used to interview using the kind of brainteasers found in books like the ones Mensa used to make. The algorithms approach, I suspect, is just a CS proxy for an IQ test just like their old approach was. It would also filter for youth, which they semi-openly advertise as well (see chess literature on brain age for what I mean).

Conformance too (due to the prep time)

opportune7y ago

This is because it's actually not allowed to use IQ tests as a screening mechanism for most jobs (you need a valid reason and "software engineer" probably isn't good enough to justify the liability). By using algo questions they can select for something that might correlate very well with IQ, that also makes sure the candidate has real coding knowledge, and which has much less liability

stale20027y ago

Uhhh, no. They are absolutely not testing IQ.

It is instead the opposite. These companies are testing the quality of "who has practiced the most for these types of questions".

It has nothing to do with intelligence. It is instead almost directly correlated with how much time you have spent practicing interview questions.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse