
Ask HN: What do you look for in a junior developer? - huntermeyer
When interviewing a junior dev, what key qualities or skills are you looking for? What would make you hire one over another?<p>Though optional, please include your job title. Much appreciated.
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sovietbear
I tend to look for efficiency in algorithms. The company I work for commonly
issues a coding challenge to applicants which is reviewed by multiple coders
before any actual interviews. The coding challenge is typically a topological
sorting problem. I'm much more likely to pass an applicant to the next stage
if their solution is efficient vs not. Example specific to that problem is
multiple for loops vs recursion.

Any developer that's been around for more than a year can probably with time
solve almost any problem, the key for me is how they solve it and how fast
they solve it. Obviously there are more aspects to hiring than can be laid out
in a comment, but efficiency is a big one for me.

Btw, my job title is 'Software Craftsman'

