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Discussion on: Mastering the Code Pair Interview

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John Dean

I know everyone likes to roast code pairing interviews but personally I think they are good balance between not taking up too much of the applicant's time (for example in the case of a take home assignment) while also giving the interviewer a feel for the type of code they'll be working with.

I prefer to show prior work rather than having to build from scratch for an interview. Hopefully I'm interviewing in a technology that I have prior art to draw from.

Of course, this is me... I feel very comfortable with code pairing. I see patterns in the questions asked. I have a plan. Even if I can't fully answer every problem I end the exercise with the best code I can write. I embrace the process.

As for me, I'd rather do the 30-60 minute code pairing exercise than spend possibly hours building a full app. That being said, I'd be perfectly fine with an applicant that wanted to do more! But I still feel that code pairing respects the time of the applicant and is enough to at least weed out applicants that are possibly interviewing for too high a role or who might struggle day to day.