

What Makes a Great Coding Interview? Be Real - housecor
http://www.bitnative.com/2015/05/07/coding-interviews/

======
ColinWright

       It's easy to create a simple coding test that
       asks the candidate to reverse strings, calculate
       a fibonacci number, or print fizzbuzz.  But as
       you can see from these links, they're worthless
       questions. They don't foster conversation, ...
    

Wrong. When done badly, as cargo cult[0][1] interviewing, _then_ they don't
foster conversation. When done well they serve as the springboard to some
great conversations.

Get to the "why" of the question - it's not pass/fail, it's not "tick this box
and move on." It's a "starter for 10."[2][3][4]

Claiming otherwise is simply demonstrating that you've missed the point. Much
of the article is good, but with regards the simple tests and "pen and paper"
questions, it simply misses the point.

\----

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_science](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_science)

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_programming](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_programming)

[2]
[http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english...](http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/university-
challenge)

[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starter_for_Ten](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starter_for_Ten)

[4]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Challenge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Challenge)

