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0 pointscurryst4y ago0 comments

> If this is actually true, which I highly doubt (I've interviewed people, too), your process is terrible at preselection. I've heard so much about this "programmer charlatan" that lies on his resume and ends up blowing up million dollar systems, but have yet to see any tangible proof.

I've seen similar. I wouldn't say 80%, but somewhere in the 20% range of people on phone screens. If I ask a similar modulo question that isn't obviously a rephrased FizzBuzz (i.e. "write a function that returns every 4th item in a list"), that percentage goes up dramatically. A lot of candidates memorize FizzBuzz without actually understanding what's happening and how to use it.

> This is self-contradictory: how/why would any open source project let someone that doesn't know fizzbuzz contribute to their codebase? I run a tiny throwaway open source project (~600 GH stars) and even my reviews are pretty stringent. This point of view is not consistent. It's like saying "I know people that ran in marathons, but couldn't even run for half a mile in my interview."

There are no time constraints, and no way to tell how much of their contribution is from their own knowledge and how much is copied from StackOverflow/other open source projects/etc. The point of view is consistent; I can't run a marathon, but I can walk 26 miles. That's fine for the local charity marathon, but it's not going to cut it if I want to do competitive marathons. The constraints and expectations are wildly different.

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ipaddr4y ago

Programming verbally over the phone is a skill that requires learning.

I can run a marathon but I can't run 100. Your interview is one of many that I am making time over lunch. I'm tired and getting a perfect mark on a take home isn't as important as getting it done quickly so I can find time to apply to other positions before I go back to work.

If you are not paying someone to do the interview you are not going to get anyone's best. Even if you pay people are trying to juggle things to get the interview to work.

And to the parent post. 50% of people being late means they took the time out to talk to you and come to your offices and didn't gage the time or didn't think it mattered. That doesn't make them bad programmers and shouldn't even matter to the interviewer. Was the car service the employer used late picking the employee or did they have to come on their own?

dvt4y ago

> There are no time constraints

Even ignoring the fact that you keep moving the goalposts and are taking my "marathon" analogy way too literally, the argument that any kind of real-world coding involves "time constraints" akin to a 30-minute stress-ridden whiteboard interview is just bonkers.

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