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A comment on Hiring Is Broken: What Do Developers Say About Technical Interviews?. Parent comment

Re:Hiring Is Broken: What Do Developers Say About Technical ... by lordnacho on Thursday August 15, 2019 @03:05PM (#20708546)
Another good one is the "does linked list have loop" question. If you don't know the answer, you have to figure it out from inspiration. Took over a decade for the first guy to do it.
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Re:Hiring Is Broken: What Do Developers Say About Technical ... by rofo1 on Thursday August 15, 2019 @03:20PM (#20708700)
The second pointer going twice the speed? I don't know the story, but I know the solution, because I've seen it.

Similarly for many other tricks.

I have never used it in real-life development, though.

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Re:Hiring Is Broken: What Do Developers Say About Technical ... by wnmurphy on Thursday August 15, 2019 @03:49PM (#20708961)
> I know the solution, because I've seen it.

> I have never used it in real-life development, though.

I'd wager both of these are true for the majority of technical interview problems, and I think that's exactly the point.

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Re:Hiring Is Broken: What Do Developers Say About Technical ... by lordnacho on Thursday August 15, 2019 @03:33PM (#20708826)
https://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2014/06/24/the-worst-progr...
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Re:Hiring Is Broken: What Do Developers Say About Technical ... by goatinaboat on Friday August 16, 2019 @10:52AM (#20715716)
In real life development, if you do have a circular linked list unintentionally, what can you do other than terminate the program?
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Re:Hiring Is Broken: What Do Developers Say About Technical ... by jiveturkey on Thursday August 15, 2019 @08:50PM (#20711182)
but that one should be, in fact, well known. i've been out of school forever but surely it has to be taught now?

so, this question isn't testing if you can find a loop, it's testing whether you have enough experience to have heard of it. which is a fine enough thing to test for.

i understand your point, that questions are often designed poorly, but your example isn't necessarily a good one.

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Re:Hiring Is Broken: What Do Developers Say About Technical ... by lordnacho on Friday August 16, 2019 @04:47AM (#20713291)
If it's about experience, why not ask whether the person has an opinion on XYZ framework or other thing that you actually use?
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