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Discussion on: Good Programmer vs Average Programmer - and, Why Asking questions and Paying attention to Details matters.

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juliusza profile image
Julius Žaromskis

"files older than 30 days"

You specifically ask to delete files older than 30 days and then later suggest that candidate should have assumed that he should have archived last month's files. How he's supposed to infer that ?

Now if you asked me:

Can you write a script to archive files older than 30 days and which can be run on 1st day of the month using a cron job?

I would just say

  • yes

:)

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javinpaul profile image
javinpaul

:-) think me as a client, That's why I posted that image. Most of the time don't really know what they want and we need to ask to confirm that. In this, you should ask, why you want to delete 30 days of files? That would lead to a real requirement that he want a monthly archive. I mean, you can disagree but that's the way I generally find what a user really wants.

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juliusza profile image
Julius Žaromskis

I get your point, just a bad example with the script IMO. Must absolutely convey that questions as a client, because most people would completely trust a recruiter to get his requirements right. I would.

In one interview I was asked to perform a practical task. I came back with additional questions, because I wasn't sure about the exact requirements and hence the best possible DB solution. I was ridiculed for not inferring the requirements by myself.

After I said I would not continue with onboarding, I asked interviewee to disclose all details. He had no idea about the potential problems with real world implementation of the said task.

I guess my point is that people tend to have a sort of tunnel vision and rule out good candidates based on bad assumptions.

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javinpaul profile image
javinpaul

That's true and it happens many times and unfortunately, there is no way to really stop it because nobody questions Interviewer why he rejects a candidate?