I know this is almost a cliche at this point, but I need to vent. Most coding interviews are absolutely terrible. After having attended a few last week, here are three things I complete hate about them. Engineering managers, I hope you're listening.
1) You’re testing my memory not my engineering skills
There’s a reason why there are SO many memes about lifting code from stackoverflow, or a library from Github and it’s because engineering a solution HINGES upon being able to know exactly what problem you’re trying to solve and being able to articulate it well to a fellow engineer (or describe it on a google search). So when you make me code on a bloody google doc, and forbid me to google stuff, you’re basically testing my memory and not my engineering skills. That brings me to point 2
2) The work that most companies do is derivative
I’ve been around enough to know this. Most companies don’t really do any R&D and straight up use libraries and lines of code from places all over the internet. And that’s fine. In other words, original work is rare. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t look for originality in a candidate. It just means that you need to be reasonable when interviewing someone. Please be reasonable.
3) Provide the right tools for an interview
A coding interview is a high-pressure situation that is made worse by forcing a candidate to use tools that don’t remotely resemble the IDE that an employee would use on the job. Yes, people are still making us use Google Docs to write code. Would you give a chef a microwave during his cooking interview?
That’s where I am at the moment. Despite having enough experience and a more than reputable track record of work, I am NOT someone who can quote algorithms from memory. I will never be that person. What I feel I’m good at, however, is being able to think of a solution at a decent level of abstraction, but I’m punished for not knowing the right syntax, or remembering an algorithm to its finest details.
Something has to change.
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