Coding exercise during interview

[veekay]

Hey Guys

How you doing ?

After being in my current job for 5 years I decided to look for a new one. I carefully chose a company near to where I live for a Senior Developer position.

After a first interview I was called for a second.

After another interview I was then given a sheet of paper which said the usual create a database and write a function which talks to the database and returns a collection of objets and write a web form which displays this information etc etc.

Bearing in mind this was for a Senior position I was slightly disappointed with this exercise. I do not write code to open database connection on a day to day basis. There are data access objects in my library or I use NHibernate.

I do web based development on a day to day basis but I do not code this low level programs every day. No senior programmer worth his salt would do this.

Is it only me or all companies doing this sort of thing ?

Since this was my first interview I do not know the norm yet.

Any thoughts appreciated and any feedback from members who have attended recent interviews with coding exercises.

Cheers
Veekay

[King Cnvt]

Sadly the "technical test" aspect is often an esoteric collection on irrelevant tecno-obscurities unearthed by the incumbent alpha geek.

[Harrysp]

Sadly the "technical test" aspect is often an esoteric collection on irrelevant tecno-obscurities unearthed by the incumbent alpha geek.

LOL

[NickFitz]

A lot of people can sling stuff together using libraries but have no real understanding of the underlying principles of what they're doing. When the abstraction turns leaky (as it inevitably does) this lack of in-depth knowledge means they are left floundering, unable to resolve the problem.

By showing that you have a proper understanding of the underlying technologies, rather than having read a few tutorials on the library's website, you demonstrate that you are indeed worth your salt; it doesn't necessarily mean that you would have to do this kind of thing on a daily basis.

I personally would never employ a web developer who was unable to do things at a low level when necessary, even if they needed to Google for the necessary information. Nor would I expect them to actually do things that way day-to-day, when their productivity could be greatly increased by using appropriate libraries. (Mind you, I firmly believe that anybody with no experience of assembly language is pretty seriously deficient for a programming role, so my attitude may be thought extreme.)

The simple fact is that the majority of people out there aren't very good, and it's usually because they don't truly understand what they're doing. The majority of web developers I've met don't even have a decent knowledge of HTTP. By demonstrating that you know what you're doing, rather than just knowing how to do a few things, you justify the rates you get as a contractor.

But in most cases, as His Majesty (whose name is replaced by asterisks by this forum software ) pointed out, it's probably just some geek who uses the interview process as a way of showing off his l33tn355

[Gibbon]

(Mind you, I firmly believe that anybody with no experience of assembly language is pretty seriously deficient for a programming role, so my attitude may be thought extreme.)

Assem language, spoilt git. Real programmers use machine code and bits of paper with holes in.

Funny really that when you get down to it all a CPU can do is binary add and shift, the rest is abstraction.

HTH

[NickFitz]

Real programmers use machine code and bits of paper with holes in.

Ah, the halcyon days of youth! I used to save up buggy programs on punched paper tape of various hues and use them for Christmas decorations

[Cowboy Bob]

I do web based development on a day to day basis but I do not code this low level programs every day. No senior programmer worth his salt would do this.

Rubbish. Maybe a "senior" permie might think it beyond them to stoop down to such a level, but if I was interviewing and you couldn't demonstrate that you can write code to access a database - it's not rocket science - you'd be out of the door before the next question and we'd all be having a laugh about you down the pub at lunchtime.

[Cowboy Bob]

A lot of people can sling stuff together using libraries but have no real understanding of the underlying principles of what they're doing. When the abstraction turns leaky (as it inevitably does) this lack of in-depth knowledge means they are left floundering, unable to resolve the problem.

By showing that you have a proper understanding of the underlying technologies, rather than having read a few tutorials on the library's website, you demonstrate that you are indeed worth your salt; it doesn't necessarily mean that you would have to do this kind of thing on a daily basis.

I personally would never employ a web developer who was unable to do things at a low level when necessary, even if they needed to Google for the necessary information. Nor would I expect them to actually do things that way day-to-day, when their productivity could be greatly increased by using appropriate libraries. (Mind you, I firmly believe that anybody with no experience of assembly language is pretty seriously deficient for a programming role, so my attitude may be thought extreme.)

The simple fact is that the majority of people out there aren't very good, and it's usually because they don't truly understand what they're doing. The majority of web developers I've met don't even have a decent knowledge of HTTP. By demonstrating that you know what you're doing, rather than just knowing how to do a few things, you justify the rates you get as a contractor.

But in most cases, as His Majesty (whose name is replaced by asterisks by this forum software ) pointed out, it's probably just some geek who uses the interview process as a way of showing off his l33tn355

(Apart from the assembly bit...)

[bored]

Rubbish. Maybe a "senior" permie might think it beyond them to stoop down to such a level, but if I was interviewing and you couldn't demonstrate that you can write code to access a database - it's not rocket science - you'd be out of the door before the next question and we'd all be having a laugh about you down the pub at lunchtime.

Exactly. Any lack of tech knowledge by a "senior" developer will be magnified throughout the project as it is often his duty to teach other devs, write framework code etc.

[DimPrawn]

I wonder if this same low level of tedium is applied to Lawyers, Accountants, Dentists or other real professions when they are interviewed or is a holistic and high level approach applied to interview?