
Ask HN: Can this person program their way out of a paper bag? - herodotus
There are many programming interview questions available online, but all the ones I have looked at are testing language-specific expertise. When I used to teach a second year data structures course I would often start with a simple quiz: write a function in the language you learned last term that returns the sum of the integers in an integer array that it is passed. It was amazing how many of the students could not answer that simple question! Tomorrow, I am helping a family member evaluate someone he wants to hire someone to develop some Web server stuff. I want to start with some very simple screening questions to answer this fundamental question: Does this person really know how to program? I would appreciate some suggestions.
======
gus_massa
Try the FizzBuzz test [https://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-
program/](https://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/)

------
herodotus
Just to clarify a little: to me there is innate skill and stuff you can learn.
All the questions I have looked at so far test what you have learned. I want
the other kind of question.

------
bade
Write a program which is passed two arrays and determines whether the contents
of one is a permutation of the contents of the other.

~~~
herodotus
Nice idea, but this is pretty difficult as a screening question. I could
simplify it by letting the candidate assume that there are no repetitions in
either array.

