Ask HN: Why doesn't the industry have a standard “code interview” certification? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why doesn't the industry have a standard “code interview” certification?

2 pointsempath751 comment

All of these companies are pulling random coding questions from basically the same pool of questions, and having people who aren't experts in evaluating coding ability evaluate people on the basis of whether they happen to know how to solve one or two problems off the top of their head. We all know how inconsistent these interview questions are and how often competent coders can fail them.

What if there were a standardized 3 hour long 'algorithms and datastructures' certification that pulls from this same pool of questions, designed by panels of experts with FAANG-level experience, so when I go on the interview circuit, I don't have to go through the same process over and over again. You should be able to just present this cert that says you've passed a standard code interview. Does anyone enjoy the process enough on either side of the interviewing table enough that that wouldn't be good enough?

I think that measuring software engineers' knowledge is still an unsolved problem. You can know concepts and things without knowing how to apply them. On a standardised test this means you can remember the answers by heart and thus pass the test without necessarily being able to apply that knowledge to varying real-world situations.

> pulling random coding questions from basically the same pool of questions

At least in my experience, my interviews had very little questions with single, defined answers and more open-ended questions (how would you design this? let's spend one hour pair-programming and set up a basic Django project) as well as being evaluated by actual developers instead of no-skill monkeys. This in my opinion tests your ability to actually apply whatever knowledge you had to real-world problems, while not disqualifying you because you are bad at memorising things (I will not even attempt an algorithm-based interview because I have no knowledge on the subject and no desire to research them either since it doesn't come up frequently enough in my job to make it worthwhile to learn them).

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