Re:Google: 90% of our engineers use the software you wrote (...
by briandear on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @07:50PM
(#9696464)
Is a binary search tree a problem that the Dev would have needed to solve? In over 5 years as a dev, I have never once needed to solve a binary search tree. Why not ask the candidate how to perform a kidney transplant.. That's solving a problem too. White boarding algorithms is not relevant to the majority of Dev jobs. It's related, but not particularly valuable as a screener.
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Re:Google: 90% of our engineers use the software you wrote (...
by rnovak on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @08:08PM
(#9696538)
I'm not sure how asking someone who's going to be working in computer programming something about computer science is equal to asking someone who's going to be working in computer programming something about medicine. Those two things aren't equivalent. Could you perhaps clarify?
Engineering is the use of knowledge/science to solve problems, right? So why is asking someone to use knowledge to solve a problem not applicable to the hiring process?
To be clear, this isn't the same question as "why are manhole covers round", or "how would you move a mountain".
Re:Google: 90% of our engineers use the software you wrote (...
by hvidgaard on Thursday June 11, 2015 @04:03AM
(#9698323)
The act of creating a, say a self balancing binary search tree, is something you should know about. If you ever have to implement it, you go look it up. Engineers are exactly the same - you would rather have one that know where to look up all the stuff, or search for information, than one that can regurgitate the entirety of his education theory.