Comment by gwbas1c
1 day ago
I've started to treat live coding screening sessions as a "conversation about code." I make sure that the candidate knows that I'm trying to make sure we can discuss code.
Why?
Purely being a "good programmer" isn't just enough for the job. It's important that we can develop a good working rapport, and communicate.
For example: Someone who's an expert programmer might misinterpret a discussion and build the wrong thing; or someone might be a great programmer but otherwise be impossible to actually conduct a technical discussion.
IE, this is why "Fizzbuz"-style questions work so well: It's not really screening that you're a great programmer, it's screening your ability to have a technical discussion.
exactly.
live coding interviews aren't supposed to be about "can you solve this", they're supposed to be "can you explain how to solve this".
a little bit of technical know-how with a bunch of communication.
think about how much of your work is explaining what needs to be done to a non-technical manager. that's what theyre testing.
I think that's a good approach. I can write FizzBuzz in 4 different programming styles, in at least 3 different programming languages, and I'd be happy to talk about all 12 permutations of them.
[dead]