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by howdydoo 2912 days ago
In a parallel universe, a candidate who is worried about a divisor of zero has his head stuck in the tiny details and is unable to do big-picture thinking. Personally I've gone my entire career without seeing a divide-by-zero bug. It's the last thing on my mind. If it's possible for Z to be zero, it will be caught in CI before we deploy/cut a release.

In your first snippet, would you expect a candidate to tell you that `f` might be undefined?
1 comments
A_Person 2912 days ago
> In your first snippet, would you expect a candidate to tell you that `f` might be undefined?

No. Because I'd expect the candidate to focus on subtle issues, and not waste time on bleeding obvious ones!

Of course f() might be undefined. Blind Freddy knows that. But Blind Freddy can't necessarily see the other (much more subtle) problems in those 4 lines of code.

I want to know, is this candidate more than Blind Freddy? Does he inhabit what some of us call "the real world", where things like division by zero are things to be consciously managed by proper coding practices?

(Edits for clarity)

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howdydoo 2912 days ago
As someone who has worked on several legacy JS codebases, I can tell you with certainty that in some kinds of projects you'll find in the "real world", `f` being undefined is infinitely more likely than a divisor being zero. Maybe Freddy isn't blind. Maybe he just has a different background than you.
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A_Person 2912 days ago
Quite possibly. I've worked mainly in languages where undefined functions kill the compile, and division by zero is a runtime error. Perhaps JavaScript just facilitates sloppy coding practices? Many other languages don't. Perhaps you're the one with the skewed perspective!
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oreganoz 2912 days ago
Wow, congrats on insulting people who use a different programming language than you. You really give an air of professionalism in your speeches.

But its the lack of communication on your front that would make people fail your test, not their lack of competence.

Anyone can summon an obscure puzzle and claim its easy when they know the key.

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abiox 2912 days ago
> who use a different programming language than you

isn't this a bit reductive?

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A_Person 2911 days ago
> Wow, congrats on insulting people

I posted a detailed exposition of my own approach to interviewing. I expected nothing more than some intelligent comments thereon.

In response, someone says I'm "prejudiced", and why would he "give a fuck" about my concerns; another says my concerns exist "in a parallel universe"; and another says my views are "religious"!

Equeeze me if I don't take well to copping random insults in what is meant to be an intelligent discussion forum. Particularly from people who've contributed zero to the discussion so far - like you! I suggest you get out of the basement and get some exercise. Maybe ask your mum for a bike?

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