Re:Microsoft changed how it interviews software developers
by kronin on Monday December 31, 2018 @12:23AM
(#18793175)
I agree about your unspoken assumption, but many interviewees ask. And the post I was responding to pointed to the Apache commons library, so I hazard to say it's not universally known.
A fail is not a red flag. A senior candidate not asking clarifying questions does not disqualify them (what I would call a red flag) but it is brought up in the debrief as a potential gap. I don't expect them to state this could be implemented using a single call to Apache commons. I call those candidates out in the debrief as being aware of the library, as a bonus. But not saying it isn't a negative.
In an interview, there is an unspoken assumption that you won't be using third party libraries to implement algorithms, and certainly not a third party library that implements it in one function call. Using that as a red flag will yield a LOT of false positives.
Also, I have over 10 years experience in Java, have used Apache commons extensively, and had no idea that a string reversal method even existed. You can't use that knowledge to judge anything useful.