[azoapes]

There are definately "Google" problems that are hard to solve if a mental meltdown is ongoing. There are problems that, even if you get the solution explained to, you might not "get" initially.

Fibonacci is not such a problem. It includes declaring one argument, a handful of variables, one for loop, a couple of assignments and a return statement. And he could not do this with open and explicit guidance.

As he was applying for a senior backend developer position, I can only conclude that morphing complex data structures and calculating shopping carts with taxes, rounding and campaign deductions will be a problem. Maybe I'm wrong, and I should mention that there were additional interview steps and questions where my interview partner didn't have confidence in the candidate, but I really feel that this excercise tells me something. And that's the problem with these kinds of interview techniques I guess. That they do feel very relevant.

[brooklyndavs]

Maybe next time have the candidate try to do a shopping cart calculation? You could explain that this is a problem our business faces a lot. Give him or her a laptop with tools and internet access. If they can't come up with anything then yeah, maybe not the right person. If they come up with something but it's not optimal it might be a judgement call at that point. Do have a good personality? Do they understand other development fundamentals? Are they smart overall and can they pick things up quickly? Some of this talent shortage buisness talks about I think is related to hiring and what buiness expects of the developers they hired. Most people are not going to be the perfect technical fit. A lot will have the capacity to grow and learn in the position.