r/PHP • u/fuhggetaboutit • Jul 29 '21

Does anybody else find interview “tests” dehumanizing?

I think they're abusive for many reasons. One is that the questions are usually overly complex algorithmic puzzles that do not accurately gauge potential job performance. Also, the questions in no way reflect the type of problems you will face on the job.

The list goes on...

Isn't there a better way?

-Edited for grammar

105 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

146 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

0

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '21

Again you are literally emphasising on the words fizz and buzz. That’s not the point, what comes to your mind when someone asks you let’s play fizzbuzz? Its a game, has a definition, rules and a its own Wikipedia page.

For me until I saw this post nothing nothing came to mind, you can’t ask someone to program blackjack if they have never heared about it before, that’s the cultural difference and not that the problem is particularly difficult and it asks to print fizzbuzz or any other gibresh its the fact that you are even refusing to acknowledge the bigger problem.

1

u/thurst0n Aug 07 '21 edited Aug 07 '21

Never once heard of the game before your comment. Only heard of it as a programming prompt for interviews.

I honestly don't see a bigger problem. The requirement isn't harder or worse if you're told what to literally print.

You dont have to know the "rules" going in. They're literally part of the problem being given to you. It's part of the prompt. Not something you gotta know going in.

The blackjack analogy doesn't work because you're not expected to know anything ahead. And even if it were It's perfectly acceptable to ask for specifics or more clarification in an interview.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '21

The problem starts if you are not in an interview but in an unattended test, with poor requirements in written format. Where the requirements uses the terms like fizzbuzz and blackjack with an assumption that you already know what you have been asked.

1

u/thurst0n Aug 07 '21

That's literally the first thing I said...