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by crispyambulance 2496 days ago
The interesting thing to consider is that before implementing the screen, did you hire some people that would have failed fizzbuzz? It makes me wonder how valuable the fizzbuzz screen actually is if people can just do it after a little bit of work experience.

I suspect that candidates who are otherwise fine (and not misrepresenting themselves on their CV's), fail fizzbuzz because they overthink the problem, stumble on the not-so-frequently-used modulo operator and then paint themselves into a corner where they can't just loosen up, take a breath and figure out the solution.
2 comments
blunte 2496 days ago
Exactly. If a company hires a programmer who cannot solve fizzbuzz, then the company utterly failed at interviewing. And in my opinion, this may indicate that the company will fail in other important communication areas.

You should be able to have a 10 minute conversation with someone and know if they can solve fizzbuzz (without even posing the problem).

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crispyambulance 2495 days ago
That 10 minute conversation is potentially far more nuanced than a go/no-go fizzbuzz quiz. It's a different thing altogether.

The fact is companies hire people all the time, without using fizzbuzz, probably hiring some number of people that would not have passed fizzbuzz if it were given to them. Were all those people definitely bad hires? I think not. The parent commenter's company had "survived" without it, and many do now.

It's understandable to want to have the ultimate "gotcha" interview question, the response to which screens out a candidate. It's not totally wrong, but there's a lot more to an interview. I think the onus should be on the hiring managers to develop their behavioral interviewing skills so that they're able to evaluate a candidate more fully than by using toy problem quizzes.

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jerf 2496 days ago
Speaking at least for myself in an interview role, I consider the modulo operator a bit of trivia that many programmers have no reason to encounter, and if you build a "divisible_by_5" function that works in some semi-sensible manner, I'd probably be happy.
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