C# paper-based assessment feedback
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I didnt make the cut! :doh: Apparently, not many people have made the cut. I kindly requested that my recruiter get their 'suggested answers'. It would make for some 'interesting' reading :)
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IronScheme - 1.0 beta 1 - out now!
((lambda (x) `((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) '`((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) -
I didnt make the cut! :doh: Apparently, not many people have made the cut. I kindly requested that my recruiter get their 'suggested answers'. It would make for some 'interesting' reading :)
xacc.ide - now with TabsToSpaces support
IronScheme - 1.0 beta 1 - out now!
((lambda (x) `((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) '`((lambda (x) ,x) ',x))Well that just shows you the validity of that test... Who's test is it if I may ask? And which recruitment agency are you using?
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Junior Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Passion != Programming & you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111 -
Well that just shows you the validity of that test... Who's test is it if I may ask? And which recruitment agency are you using?
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Junior Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Passion != Programming & you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111Harvey Saayman wrote:
Who's test is it if I may ask?
A 'prospective employer'. I dont think I will mention their name (yet).
xacc.ide - now with TabsToSpaces support
IronScheme - 1.0 beta 1 - out now!
((lambda (x) `((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) '`((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) -
I didnt make the cut! :doh: Apparently, not many people have made the cut. I kindly requested that my recruiter get their 'suggested answers'. It would make for some 'interesting' reading :)
xacc.ide - now with TabsToSpaces support
IronScheme - 1.0 beta 1 - out now!
((lambda (x) `((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) '`((lambda (x) ,x) ',x))I had to do a maths test for a programming interview once. It was so stupid. I had to identify patterns in drawings for example if a square has a triangle in one corner and the next picture is slightly different etc. The guy said it doesnt prove that Im not a programmer if I dont pass it just proves if you are suitable for our job. Why cant they keep it simple and just ask us to write a few lines of code!!
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Harvey Saayman wrote:
Who's test is it if I may ask?
A 'prospective employer'. I dont think I will mention their name (yet).
xacc.ide - now with TabsToSpaces support
IronScheme - 1.0 beta 1 - out now!
((lambda (x) `((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) '`((lambda (x) ,x) ',x))lol, its all good... I had a similar situation while job hunting last year, had a panel interview at multichoice, which sucked by the way. One of the senior dev's was on the panel and asked me all sorts of silly questions like "how many classes can you have in a dll" :omg: He did ask other more relevant stuff like what do i think inheritance is all about and so on, but i didn't know half the crap he asked cause although it was briefly covered in my course material I (at that point) have never needed to make use of inheritance and therefore wasn't too clued up on it. My point being these kinds of tests test nothing but how well you can recite the stuff you've memorized. There's a huge difference between being able to say(or write) what inheritance is and actually using it in a real word situation to solve a real world problem. So i stick with what i said on the other thread yesterday, the test should be a program spec. My 2 cents :)
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Junior Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Passion != Programming & you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111 -
I had to do a maths test for a programming interview once. It was so stupid. I had to identify patterns in drawings for example if a square has a triangle in one corner and the next picture is slightly different etc. The guy said it doesnt prove that Im not a programmer if I dont pass it just proves if you are suitable for our job. Why cant they keep it simple and just ask us to write a few lines of code!!
I've had that aswell, it makes more sense than the test leppie had to write cause it tests if you can think logically and solve a problem, but yes, that can also be done by writing some code.
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Junior Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Passion != Programming & you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111 -
I had to do a maths test for a programming interview once. It was so stupid. I had to identify patterns in drawings for example if a square has a triangle in one corner and the next picture is slightly different etc. The guy said it doesnt prove that Im not a programmer if I dont pass it just proves if you are suitable for our job. Why cant they keep it simple and just ask us to write a few lines of code!!
Because what the guy said is true, some jobs are not reflective of your coding ability but need a lot of theory, hence the mathematics and the pattern recognition.
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I had to do a maths test for a programming interview once. It was so stupid. I had to identify patterns in drawings for example if a square has a triangle in one corner and the next picture is slightly different etc. The guy said it doesnt prove that Im not a programmer if I dont pass it just proves if you are suitable for our job. Why cant they keep it simple and just ask us to write a few lines of code!!
eyeseetee wrote:
Why cant they keep it simple and just ask us to write a few lines of code!!
I had an interview for a VB.NET / C#.NET job when I was looking 2 years ago. The first ineterview was just background information. You know the usual, where did you study, What are your hobby's, and so on. In that interview the clearly mentioned that it was an 'offline' programming job. And I asked them again just to be shure (don't know much about website programming so...) The second round was then like you suggested to write a few lines off code. Guess what, they asked me to write a 'simple' website (I did and was better than the rest but I didn't have the 5 years experiance they wanted, turns out the guy they hired quit or was fired 6 months later and they where looking again)
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eyeseetee wrote:
Why cant they keep it simple and just ask us to write a few lines of code!!
I had an interview for a VB.NET / C#.NET job when I was looking 2 years ago. The first ineterview was just background information. You know the usual, where did you study, What are your hobby's, and so on. In that interview the clearly mentioned that it was an 'offline' programming job. And I asked them again just to be shure (don't know much about website programming so...) The second round was then like you suggested to write a few lines off code. Guess what, they asked me to write a 'simple' website (I did and was better than the rest but I didn't have the 5 years experiance they wanted, turns out the guy they hired quit or was fired 6 months later and they where looking again)
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Typical. They should be looking at what you can do rather then just judging on the amount of experience you have. You could have 5 years experience and still be not as good as say someone who had 2-3 years experience.
Amen When I started my current job my boss hired another .NET programmer with 20+ years of experience to lead the .NET programming. He lasted 5 months and then was fired only to leave me with one hell of a big mess to clean up (still cleaning at the moment and he was fired olmost a year ago). Some off the things he told my boss that where possible or not in .NET where just mind boggeling.
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lol, its all good... I had a similar situation while job hunting last year, had a panel interview at multichoice, which sucked by the way. One of the senior dev's was on the panel and asked me all sorts of silly questions like "how many classes can you have in a dll" :omg: He did ask other more relevant stuff like what do i think inheritance is all about and so on, but i didn't know half the crap he asked cause although it was briefly covered in my course material I (at that point) have never needed to make use of inheritance and therefore wasn't too clued up on it. My point being these kinds of tests test nothing but how well you can recite the stuff you've memorized. There's a huge difference between being able to say(or write) what inheritance is and actually using it in a real word situation to solve a real world problem. So i stick with what i said on the other thread yesterday, the test should be a program spec. My 2 cents :)
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Junior Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Passion != Programming & you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111That happened to me once where the senior dev asked all kinds of "book" questions, which even with several years experience I felt I did terrible...called the manager of the department (who I interviewed with first) and appologized for doing poorly, thanked him for giving me time and allowing me to at least interview. Got the job!
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lol, its all good... I had a similar situation while job hunting last year, had a panel interview at multichoice, which sucked by the way. One of the senior dev's was on the panel and asked me all sorts of silly questions like "how many classes can you have in a dll" :omg: He did ask other more relevant stuff like what do i think inheritance is all about and so on, but i didn't know half the crap he asked cause although it was briefly covered in my course material I (at that point) have never needed to make use of inheritance and therefore wasn't too clued up on it. My point being these kinds of tests test nothing but how well you can recite the stuff you've memorized. There's a huge difference between being able to say(or write) what inheritance is and actually using it in a real word situation to solve a real world problem. So i stick with what i said on the other thread yesterday, the test should be a program spec. My 2 cents :)
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Junior Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Passion != Programming & you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111I concur. I was involved in the hiring process at my last position. I had to come up with the questions to ask people. However, the main test was real programming. We would give the candidates a desktop with Visual Studio and SQL Server (using the pubs database). Then they are asked to display a grid of books and be able to filter the grid via the author selected in a drop down. We tell them to code it any way they want, the only criteria is that it works. They are even allowed to use Google and the internet. It is amazing how many people could not complete the simple test. These applicants were applying for senior level ASP.Net position and 75% of them could not create a simple web page that worked under the pressure of the interview. I passed the test myself when and I was amazed to see so many people unable to perform. Having esoteric knowledge about .net and other programming concepts does not always equate to being a good programmer. You probably don't want to work for that company anyway. A written test about C# is useless. When you are actually working, you are going to have MSDN, Visual Studio and the internet available.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
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I concur. I was involved in the hiring process at my last position. I had to come up with the questions to ask people. However, the main test was real programming. We would give the candidates a desktop with Visual Studio and SQL Server (using the pubs database). Then they are asked to display a grid of books and be able to filter the grid via the author selected in a drop down. We tell them to code it any way they want, the only criteria is that it works. They are even allowed to use Google and the internet. It is amazing how many people could not complete the simple test. These applicants were applying for senior level ASP.Net position and 75% of them could not create a simple web page that worked under the pressure of the interview. I passed the test myself when and I was amazed to see so many people unable to perform. Having esoteric knowledge about .net and other programming concepts does not always equate to being a good programmer. You probably don't want to work for that company anyway. A written test about C# is useless. When you are actually working, you are going to have MSDN, Visual Studio and the internet available.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
I share in your experience, i too am involved in the hiring process and my programming test is more or less this... The candidate receives a computer equiped with VS2008, an internet connection, and also a txt file containing plain-text. The spec: Write a program to read the contents of File A(the given). Process the content as to count every occurrence of every character contained within. At the end of processing write the results to File B in the following fashion...
A ---> 96
B ---> 143
C ---> 34
D ---> 98I have yet to see someone pass this test :sigh:
ToddHileHoffer wrote:
Having esoteric knowledge about .net and other programming concepts does not always equate to being a good programmer
IMO a good programmer == a programmer who knows how to use Google!
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Junior Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Passion != Programming & you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111