[biotech]

In fact, I think you can tell a competent software developer from an incompetent one with a single interview question:

What's the worst code you've seen recently?

If their answer isn't immediately and without any hesitation these two words:

My own.

Then you should end the interview immediately. Sorry, pal.

It seems to me that few programmers would answer the question this way, competent or not. And it's probably not true for most competent programmers... I wonder if Jeff has actually received this answer from a interviewee.

[hvs]

I know I've said it in a number of interviews and have gotten offers from all but one of them. I don't know if I'd recommend it unless you can follow it up with a strong explanation of why it was the worst -- and how you fixed it -- but it isn't an interview killer, IMO.

I agree with Jeff on this one. Some of my worst experiences with code has been going back over stuff that I wrote 3-5 years ago. I'm pretty hard on crappy developers, so I'm doubly hard on myself when I look back at some of the boneheaded mistakes and decisions I've made.

[ajg1977]

Given this statement and others on his blog/podcast, I'd be curious to know what experience Jeff has of interviewing people.