[dangero]

36 year old checking in. If there is any perceivable gap in speed between a younger and older software engineer, that gap can EASILY be made up with experience. After over 10 years in the industry I can honestly say interview questions aren't that original. If anything I have a huge advantage because I've heard all of them before: Answer a question that demonstrates you understand polymorphism + Algorithms 101 And that covers most of the questions I see right there. Yes it's insanely stupid to interview like that, no I don't think my age does now or ever will put me at a big disadvantage.

In my experience older people get cut out based on not being "a good cultural fit". This has been discussed ad finem on Hacker News because "cultural fit" leads to all kinds of discrimination: racial, gender, age, etc.

Every job I've had we put a person through a series of interviews, then we have a group meeting and we vote. There is no quantifiable evidence that this person actually interviewed the best. It comes down to how people feel in a room. That is the issue, not the speed at which a person can give answers. I've seen people voted down based on all kinds of illegitimate reasons and with age I think it came down to fear in some cases. A lot of software teams don't want to hire the best person they can find. They want to hire someone who is pretty OK, but will also make them look good. Yes, sometimes people don't get the job because they are too good. Am I going to hire someone who makes me look like an under-performer, or could get promoted to before me? Bingo, bad cultural fit.