[vanusa]

I never said you should just hire someone on the basis of their repo.

But rather, if you're looking for a basic smoke test which can answer the question "Can this person actually code? Do I want to spend more time engaging them?" -- there are better ways to do that than expecting them to cram on a list of algorithms to recite over the phone. Like looking at an actual work sample.

The fact that you looked at this work sample -- and came to your own conclusion about whether they would be worth engaging -- validates this very simple and basic point.

Which is your call of course. He may not meet your bar, but it would be absurd to say this guy can't code, and hasn't been around the block in terms of general CS concepts.

That said -- my own subjective opinion is that you're being exquisitely savage in your assessment of his NaCl implementation. Yeah, it's wrapper -- like it says in the Readme, and like a lot of working code out there. It's a pretty established way of solving a problem, in fact -- in some cases a very efficient and elegant way. It's not the same thing as writing 20k of primitives from scratch, of course. But that's not what he's presenting it as. He's not saying it's a "tour de force". He's saying "I think this shows we can talk about other things besides FizzBuzz".

And then other things you're like saying... like "an anti-project"? Wow.

[creamytaco]

Engineering is not about whether someone "can code", but whether someone can _engineer solutions to problems_. Has this person demonstrated that through the projects he chooses to put on display (and advertise as signal for his ability) on Github?

This is also what a lot of those engineering interviews are trying to ascertain, in a quantitative manner. I couldn't care less about someone's degrees or ivy league schools or Github projects (in isolation). These are all secondary -if that- considerations, problem solving ability being primary.

[vanusa]

Has this person demonstrated that through the projects he chooses to put on display (and advertise as signal for his ability) on Github?

Using the example you disparaged (his NaCl implementation), I would say:

"On first appearances, clearly yes. The problem was to adapt the a set of standard Go functions to a foreign interface - something one does quite a lot in an engineering environment. Also, the fact that he's aware of projects like NaCl and seeks to learn from the likes of Bernstein and Lange is a positive signal."

If I wanted to, perhaps I could drill down into the code and/or the NaCl spec itself. I don't know Go, so for all I know, maybe his code is actually horseshit. But all I'm saying is - from first appearances, definitely a positive signal. Infinitely more informative that FizzBuzzing (which would insult both his intelligence and mine).

This is also what a lot of those engineering interviews are trying to ascertain.

I've already made it clear that a glance at a repo does not obviate the need for an actual interview.