Never specified the level of detail I wanted but left it open to the candidate…depending on where they went it leaves plenty of room for follow on questions to probe their knowledge
Yes. I invented this question approx 25-26 years ago. At the time it was a pretty fair question. Today it's a trivia knowledge kind of question. You will be "impressed" by a candidate that can use up the entire interview (very possible) answering it, but that proves nothing about the candidate. Unless of course the job is writing system documentation based on personal knowledge only.
You are! Amazing, I was asking it before you were a on HN. I guess I would have though you'd mention it before? https://hn.algolia.com/?&query=Describe%20user%3Ajiveturkey&...
I started asking it over 25yrs ago…
Never specified the level of detail I wanted but left it open to the candidate…depending on where they went it leaves plenty of room for follow on questions to probe their knowledge
Yes. I invented this question approx 25-26 years ago. At the time it was a pretty fair question. Today it's a trivia knowledge kind of question. You will be "impressed" by a candidate that can use up the entire interview (very possible) answering it, but that proves nothing about the candidate. Unless of course the job is writing system documentation based on personal knowledge only.
i change my HN identity once in a while. this is the longest run for me.