Typically these questions are asked to entry-level software engineers and not ones with some experience.
Again, I don't believe asking people to write quicksort provides any signal but I was arguing that there isn't any difference between asking a candidate to write a "basic sort" vs "quick sort" in an interview.
I also mentioned this is not a good question to ask if all you are hiring for is some MEAN stack app - but is an appropriate question if you do any development where some optimization is required.
> People actually sign contracts like that on a daily basis. That is literally what you sign up for. Here is the actual process: CV screening -> Tech Test -> Phone Screening -> Interview -> Trial or "probation".
Yes, typically for roles where it is difficult to vet a candidate's skills appropriately during the interview. It is also not an improvement for Software Engineering, imo. If you ask Software Engineers if they might prefer this process over the current process, I think, most would not.
I think you would be surprised, I am sure there are lots of people who wouldn't be interested in such a methodogly. But you need to remember what the purposal is. Do you want to be interviewed and tested on your skills in an interview and then sign a job contract or would you rather do a possible 2 day tech test. You also need to remember the job market, if I have 5 companies in my job pipeline (I stop adding companies at 5) why would I want to do 5 1 day tech tests?
And 1-2 tech test is extremely common.
Although, I do agree that sometimes engineers ask questions that they don't expect to work on at the company. When I interview I ask questions (leetcode style because of the nature of systems involved) based on what problems we typically solve. I never go into advanced graph etc. But good understanding of basic data structures, understanding time complexity, testing is utmost important.
Companies are hiring software engineer not computer scientists. If someone wrote a sort algorithm in a normal job I would expect that not to be used and a library to be used. This is also knowledge that people who studied and aced their tests in Uni forget, because no one in their right mind writes a quicksort.
> Not practical enough. Do you expect, in the current scenario where there is a demand surplus, for candidates to happily sign up for a trial stint - that is for the "interview" to last one or three months? I personally won't be okay with it because it messes up with a persons stability, their ability to interview at multiple places.
People actually sign contracts like that on a daily basis. That is literally what you sign up for. Here is the actual process: CV screening -> Tech Test -> Phone Screening -> Interview -> Trial or "probation".
And the rest of it about people looking for jobs, well that's why companies should be selling/recruiting. The whole "but people won't do that" is clearly wrong since they already do and often jump at their first offer.