[skylark]

Overall, the data lines up with my own intuition, but I thought I might throw my own interpretation into the ring.

One of the biggest keys to doing well on technical interviews is to completely separate the problem solving from the coding. The strongest interviewers will discuss the problem and solve it at an abstract level using diagrams. Once satisfied with the solution, they'll code the entire thing making few mistakes.

I think this is what drives most of those metrics. Strong interviewers submit code later, and have a higher chance of it being correct because they take the time to problem solve upfront. Their thought process seems more clear because there isn't the iteration of "this should work, let me code it, oh no wait, that's wrong, let me erase this now..."

[omot]

I think this applies to actual software management too. I don't see people with the most code commits as the ones who gets promoted. The ones promoted are usually the ones who really scope out the problem. Once they're sure of a complete solution they code out their plans on a steady pace.

I think Einstein's the one that said: "If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions."

[ozim]

Yes guys that do have a lot of commits (and those who don't think through the problem long enough) end up with commits like:

"Fix" "Real fix" "Fix the fix because of fix"

Then you know you don't want those on your team. It really bites on tight deadlines when you have to put something to production but poor dude needs to push that really, really last fix.

[alexchantavy]

> The strongest interviewers will discuss the problem and solve it at an abstract level using diagrams. Once satisfied with the solution, they'll code the entire thing making few mistakes.

I agree. In general I'm mediocre at coding interviews, but I do best when I have a chance to whiteboard and draw the problem. On the other hand I do absolutely terribly on phone screens with a shared document and no where for the interviewer to see my drawing.

[UK-AL]

Completely devalues working with prototyping though.