Re: Test for potential programmer

On Wed, 2009-12-02 at 16:52 -0800, Carlo Sogono wrote:
> What kinds of tests should I be giving people to measure their
> aptitude to become good programmers/problem solvers?
> 
> I work in a really specialised field and it is actually better to hire
> someone who has experience in this field then train them to do a
> programming than hire a programmer to learn the business.
> 
> Are IQ tests enough? Or should I be looking for something else?

The coffee test:  Describe the steps taken to make coffee for the team.

You are not looking for a correct answer so much as the method that they
use to break down the solution and how they handle the pressure of
thinking on their feet.  The question above can be just about anything
that the applicant is not expecting to answer.

I would be looking for:

a)  Solutions outside the box,  a good answer from outside the problem
domain means they can think.

b)  Step by step refinement of the problem

c) How do they handle being pushed.  eg there is no water on our floor
except the bathroom and using it is a health hazard.  Watch for them
getting flustered and then recovering, how do they react.

Ask them who is Knuth, Denis Ritchie?  Pick a language specific name to
your office.   Shows a deeper interest in the subject.

Ask them to list some languages,  ask them what are their strengths and
weaknesses.   Perl great for parsing text,  but can easily be write
once.  C# C++ done right, tight hooks to Microsoft and .Net.

Ask them what they do at night.  Reading is good they will have to do a
lot,  computers web page development.  If they mention something eg web
page ask them what html stands for and name some tags and write down how
to use them.  Shows a willingness to go deeper than glossy tools.


HTH
Ken

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