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by icky 6596 days ago
> Would you rule out a candidate who doesn't know 0xFE ?

If they didn't know it after a moment's thought, I'd cut them some slack; If they couldn't calculate it, with pencil and paper, in 10 minutes (and that's giving them plenty of extra time for interview-nervousness), then I'd be seriously concerned.
1 comments
andrewcooke 6595 days ago
i read through some answers here and i nodded in agreement with raganwald saying that this only worked as a filter on failure.

but then i read this and i thought "would i really want to give a job to someone who needs a pen and paper to subtract 1 from 255?"

i'm not sure what the lesson is here - perhaps that programming tests are dangerous because it is very easy to over-interpret the results, even when you start with the best of intentions?

[edited for grammar]

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icky 6594 days ago
No, I would be very liberal in accounting for interview-nervousness.

Now, if it appeared that the candidate had no idea how to solve the problem, that would be a different story.

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