very very difficult problems
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No - just man up and learn on the fly. Course work is fine for learning fundamentals, but if you really want to learn how to be a programmer, you have to be able to teach yourself.
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001 -
theCPkid wrote:
what do I do now?
Practice! BTW: Some of the codejam problems are really good. I was planning to use them for interviewing candidates. (I need to solve them myself first :))
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No - just man up and learn on the fly. Course work is fine for learning fundamentals, but if you really want to learn how to be a programmer, you have to be able to teach yourself.
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001Totally agreed. Even after 13 years of programming for a living I still learn more each year at work than I did for my entire 7 years in college (two degrees EE and CS).
John
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theCPkid wrote:
what do I do now?
Practice! BTW: Some of the codejam problems are really good. I was planning to use them for interviewing candidates. (I need to solve them myself first :))
I participated in the beta test of Google's CodeJam, one or was it two years ago. That included trying to solve problems against the clock, 24 hours in a row. Quite addicting and hard. IMO most of their problems, all excellent, are too hard for interviews though; I prefer questions nobody should completely fail at, and probably nobody will answer perfectly in the allotted time. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
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theCPkid wrote:
what do I do now?
Practice! BTW: Some of the codejam problems are really good. I was planning to use them for interviewing candidates. (I need to solve them myself first :))
Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
I was planning to use them for interviewing candidates.
Thanks to share it. So that I can flee from your interview board. ;)
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I participated in the beta test of Google's CodeJam, one or was it two years ago. That included trying to solve problems against the clock, 24 hours in a row. Quite addicting and hard. IMO most of their problems, all excellent, are too hard for interviews though; I prefer questions nobody should completely fail at, and probably nobody will answer perfectly in the allotted time. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
Luc Pattyn wrote:
are too hard for interviews though
I am thinking of 4 hours of alloted time. Some of them can be done in 4 hours.
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Luc Pattyn wrote:
are too hard for interviews though
I am thinking of 4 hours of alloted time. Some of them can be done in 4 hours.
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If I came to a job interview and was given a 4 hour test I would submit an invoice once the interview was done. A half day is a half day! ;)
Joe Simes wrote:
A half day
Still too short to find whether some one will fit in a team.
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Luc Pattyn wrote:
are too hard for interviews though
I am thinking of 4 hours of alloted time. Some of them can be done in 4 hours.
Oh sure, 4 hours (under normal circumstances) should be more than enough to tackle any of those problems. I wasn't aware you did interviews that long, I sure never did. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
-
Joe Simes wrote:
A half day
Still too short to find whether some one will fit in a team.
I took a job at an ad agency a while back (internal web group - project manager, designer and developer [me]). I was invited to the project manager's house for a dinner party with the ad designers and the web designer (all young 20 somethings). I ate and drank them all under the table and got a job offer the next day. :-\ Worst 9 months of my life, that job was! :sigh: I came away from that dinner party thinking they were all lazy-ass idiots. I was 100% correct!! Too bad I needed the job! :-D
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Oh sure, 4 hours (under normal circumstances) should be more than enough to tackle any of those problems. I wasn't aware you did interviews that long, I sure never did. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
The idea is to give them a problem, leave the in a room. The will be free to use the Kitchen grab drinks, IM, post "Urgent Plz", use Google - whatever it takes to solve the problem.
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The idea is to give them a problem, leave the in a room. The will be free to use the Kitchen grab drinks, IM, post "Urgent Plz", use Google - whatever it takes to solve the problem.
Yes, I understand; we never did that, we gave simpler problems, and asked for a strategy, and/or implementation suggestions, not an actual design or implementation, and allotting only 5 or 10 minutes. I see the merit in a real problem solving test, however most often we would not be willing to spend the time. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
-
I participated in the beta test of Google's CodeJam, one or was it two years ago. That included trying to solve problems against the clock, 24 hours in a row. Quite addicting and hard. IMO most of their problems, all excellent, are too hard for interviews though; I prefer questions nobody should completely fail at, and probably nobody will answer perfectly in the allotted time. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
For interview questions, there should be no wrong answers. It is the methods and practices used to arrive at the answer that is more important. That's more of what I would be interested in. :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]
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For interview questions, there should be no wrong answers. It is the methods and practices used to arrive at the answer that is more important. That's more of what I would be interested in. :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]
I agree, that is what I would focus on. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
-
If I came to a job interview and was given a 4 hour test I would submit an invoice once the interview was done. A half day is a half day! ;)
My last job had 4 2-4 hour interviews spread out over 2 weeks including 2 lunches. I think it was worth it. I definitely have a good idea of the people that I'll be working with.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
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No - just man up and learn on the fly. Course work is fine for learning fundamentals, but if you really want to learn how to be a programmer, you have to be able to teach yourself.
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
-----
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001 -
My last job had 4 2-4 hour interviews spread out over 2 weeks including 2 lunches. I think it was worth it. I definitely have a good idea of the people that I'll be working with.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
Yeah, but if you spend four hours coding, you're not going to be learning much of anything about the company or prospective colleagues.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Yeah, but if you spend four hours coding, you're not going to be learning much of anything about the company or prospective colleagues.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Well, you can learn that they can't figure out how to assess someones ability without a ridiculous 4 hour programming assignment. :-D
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
