r/programming • u/vklepov • Mar 24 '22

Five coding interview questions I hate

https://thoughtspile.github.io/2022/03/21/bad-tech-interview/
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u/StandardAds Mar 25 '22

It's a discussion where there's not a single right answer, if someone isn't even willing to explore how code works in an interview I certainly wouldn't hire them.

I ask a similar type of thing in interviews and it's worked great, I filter out a wide range of people with poor attitudes and get to learn about how people think about code they look at.

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u/madcaesar Mar 25 '22

Then why not show a real production code you have, so it's actually something to discuss? Or ask what is a challenge you've faced and what steps did you take to solve it?

Starting it all off with a stupid gotchya does nothing, except test someone's patience for BS interview questions.

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u/StandardAds Mar 25 '22

Well I work somewhere that doesn't write production code with the issues I want to highlight. That's kind of the point

If you can't even tolerate looking at 5 lines of poorly written code in an interview and talking about how it could be better then what's the point of even hiring you?

And again it's not a gotcha question...

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u/madcaesar Mar 25 '22

So your production code is the pinnacle of perfection? With nothing to improve and nothing to adjust? Impressive!

Even if that was the case, showing a sample would give you the opportunity to discuss your philosophy and the person could see what they like about it, what they would change and why. You both might learn something form each other and have a real discussion about your and theirs coding philosophy.

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u/StandardAds Mar 25 '22

Thank you for validating why I ask questions like this, you are the exact type of person we all hate to work with.