Re:I Am a Bad Developer
by papsosouid on Tuesday May 07, 2013 @04:17PM
(#5670507)
>However, I do meaningfully disagree about "variations of Fizzbuzz".
What I was responding to was "variations of fizzbuzz until your brain bleeds". Which I interpret to mean doing a fizzbuzz, then the interviewer changes it a bit, and a bit more, and keeps dragging it out, having misinterpreted its purpose. Certainly the one and only "fizzbuzz" test you give a candidate can vary from individual to individual.
However, I do meaningfully disagree about "variations of Fizzbuzz". It does make sense to vary fizzbuzz, if you suspect that your candidate will have literally memorized the solution, character for character. If that's a concern, though, trivial variations are sufficient: replace the 5 with a 7, or change the ELSE case from "print the number" to "print nothing", or something.
I agree that if your "variation" makes it "interesting", you're not doing Fizzbuzz.
Whether or not interesting programming puzzles are a good element of interviewing, well, there continues to be a wide range of opinions on that.