[binarytox1n]

You'd be shocked at how bad the average software developer is at writing software. I've interviewed many people who can't solve FizzBuzz level problems. In interviews I have people program a function to rearrange characters in a string, appropriately named "SimpleProblem", and >50% of candidates with experience can't write a function that compiles and solves the problem.

LeetCode is just what you get when you ask Software Engineers to solve the interview problem - they like showing off their chops so that's what you get. It doesn't need to be that complicated though. I know with about 80% certainty whether someone will work out based on how they solve that "SimpleProblem". The other 20% - just fire them if they don't work out. It doesn't need to be that hard. You don't need 100% certainty for a hire, you'll never get there. Just fire the ones that don't work out. You don't even need to feel bad for them - in this market they'll find another job by the end of the month.

[reificator]

> In interviews I have people program a function to rearrange characters in a string, appropriately named "SimpleProblem", and >50% of candidates with experience can't write a function that compiles and solves the problem.

I would struggle with this problem, because it's difficult to read whether you want me to push back against the requirement itself and try to solve the real problem instead of shuffling chars, or perhaps you want me to talk about the edge cases you're likely to encounter while I write the naïve solution, or maybe you want to pretend it's the 80s and nothing outside your chosen charset could ever exist in real data.

[dnissley]

It's a conversation -- just ask. Clarifying requirements before jumping into coding sends a good signal.