Ask HN: Interviewing methods for software engineer?

2 pointsrahulskn862 comments

My method is to describe a part of real system and ask how would you solve the problem. The emphasis is given on candidates who can find what the actual problem is and less on the detailed level of code.

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I think the interviewing method depends on the role. If it is a senior developer role that requires solid knowledge of a specific technology, I would absolutely value their ability to write code. If it is a junior dev position, then I would value critical thinking skills and attitude since they are expected to learn and grow.

Regardless, I like simple coding questions. My favorite one to ask: given a string of text, output the frequency of each word. Does the candidate know how to use a map/dictionary? Can they split a string? Does the candidate consider apostrophes and punctuation?

If you are hiring a coder, you need to know how he code and unit test. So around 7 - 8 coding problems, each with unit tests.

If you are hiring data scientist, you probably need data analysis and ML models. So 7-8 data sets.

If you are hiring sale person - 7 - 8 cold calls or hot calls.

Hopefully you see the pattern.

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