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by WkndTriathlete 1414 days ago
Talk to the candidate. If you (and the candidate) cannot communicate well enough in 30 minutes to discover that then either (a) you don't know enough to work well with a really good developer or (b) the developer doesn't know enough to work with you or (c) both are true.

I have never been let down by this rule, either as a candidate or an interviewer. In my experience coding exercises as part of an interview process are a big red flag to me indicating the company is trying to compensate for lack of in-house talent with process or they are trying to replace someone with a certain hard-to-find skillset because they have an immediate fire they are trying to put out. Neither situation is a good one to get into.
1 comments
gsibble 1414 days ago
Trust me when I say I've talked to plenty of candidates who I thought were great only to learn they couldn't actually code fizzbuzz. Talking to candidates doesn't work.
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sys_64738 1414 days ago
You want programmers to do tricks and silly initiation dances which is your whole problem. If you actually asked real questions about their experience then you’d get a good grounding. I might do silly problems for a high profile employer but that’s likely not you. In which case if I tell you to stop wasting my time and walk out of your attempted initiation ritual then you won’t like it.
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gsibble 1414 days ago
No worries.
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sys_64738 1414 days ago
Your tone speaks dividends about how you view programmers. Often when you ask why something is hard then you’re the problem, not them.

Edit: FYI. The OP changed their initial reply from the condescending combative response to that below.

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ipaddr 1414 days ago
You might not be good at judging candidates. A good cto uses their gut and experience. An inexperienced or someone who doesn't have the gut uses tricks. Where do you fit?

Have you taken any courses or worked with professionals to help you with this?

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jenscow 1414 days ago
There are people who genuinely believe they are good at their job, when they're not. They're not bullshitting and the conversation is genuine.

Just 10 minutes of coding (or attempting to), tells you they can't code. A little longer can tell you roughly how good they are.

Experienced developers who can code have had the misfortune of working with people who couldn't pass this, and may appreciate that the members of their new team can.

Where do you fit?

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PainfullyNormal 1414 days ago
There are ways of discovering if somebody can code without making them do fizzbuzz.

This is a good process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfyWvJdsDRI

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