[MperorM]

My problem with this style of interview, is that someone like me, who is a mediocre programmer, but stellar communicator will fare MUCH better than someone who is a brilliant programmer but poor communicator.

I spend lots of time reading about smart people's opinions on programming, and will be able to recite that knowledge and play it off as my own hard-earned experience. I could talk for an hour about tradeoffs between Vagrant and Docker, without ever having spent more than a few hours actually working with Docker.

If the interviewer is really sharp they could maybe dig deep enough until they see that there's nothing beneath the surface, but I suspect most wouldn't do so even if they were capable.

[ellius]

It depends on what you need. If I need a Docker expert, you can be sure I'll tailor my interview to a Docker deep dive with very precise and detailed questions about commands, concepts, etc. The first step in any interview process should be to think very clearly about what you need and to then adjust any template you have to those needs.

[MperorM]

Yeah, I was mostly thinking in the context of a junior role. Generally bullshitting of any kind will be caught out. My point is not that someone could bullshit their way through an interview of this style. It's rather that I think it unfairly favours people with a lot of general and high-level knowledge, over someone with strong fundamentals.