
Most Tech Interviews Suck – The Only 4 Questions That Matter - NateDad
https://medium.com/lightspeed-venture-partners/most-tech-interviews-suck-the-only-4-questions-that-matter-1a71181ef4d4
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NateDad
Question #1 is sorta ok if you're hiring a "full stack developer". And yes,
everyone should have a basic understanding of how the internet works. But many
modern frameworks/libraries take care of a lot of those details for you. If
something breaks, you should be able to dive in and figure it out. But is it
really important if you realize that your HTTP request is likely version 1.1
and not 1.0? Do you know how TCP works byte by byte?

Question #2 basically assumes you're a web developer (or desktop app
developer). Lots of jobs do not involve writing webpages or desktop apps. Yes,
even jobs that help create a "product". And an hour to turn json into a
halfway decent webpage basically means you need a frontend specialist, and I'd
guess even one of those would struggle to get it half done in an hour,
especially if they're then adding tests and stuff.

#3 - Why do I want to work at your company? I can tell you, it's probably NOT
for your product. It probably _is_ for the processes, the team, the culture.
Don't forget, the interview is a time for the candidate to figure out if the
company is a right fit for her, too. If you only hire people passionate about
your product for its own sake, you're probably never get past hiring a
cofounder.

But just because I don't think your product is the best thing since sliced
bread, doesn't mean I can't think critically about the product space and do my
best to think about how to make the product better. But don't expect everyone
to know everything about your product space before joining your team. There
are infinite product spaces out there... hopefully you have some sort of
onboarding process to help get new hires up to speed on your own product
space.

#4 - Want to grab dinner with the team? Nope, sorry. Gotta get home to my
family. Lunch? Sure. But even then, honestly, enjoying spending time with the
person outside of the office should not be a prerequisite for hiring them.
You're hiring them to work during office hours, to get along with other
employees _in_ the office. There's been a lot articles that explain why
worrying about "culture fit" contributes to having companies of all young
white American males. There should be _process fit_ \- having similar goals
and methods for quality and productivity. And of course, they shouldn't be an
outright jerk. Whether or not you'd want to have a beer with them is beside
the point. You're hiring a developer, not a wingman.

I don't think these are awful questions, per se, but I also think that they
could do with a lot of tweaking.

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mimo777
I wish I would have used a version of this with my hires. At least something
like problem 1 and 2.

