Maths Worksheet Discrete Math Mathlearndirect Math Learn Direct Szh Administrator Components Com Clickheat Install Clickheat Php Math Learn Direct Why we don't hire programmers based on puzzles, API quizzes, math riddles, or other parlor tricks - Math (37signals)

Well if I need 9 minutes and only have a 3 and 5 minute timer, I personally would use the 3 minute timer 3 times. But maybe there is something else to that quiz :)

As for a quiz interview, I am with hman, I use it to leave.

I was once asked “Why are manhole covers round?” I said “Because manholes are round, and other shape would be silly for the cover” they did not like that answer.

Well if I need 9 minutes and only have a 3 and 5 minute timer, I personally would use the 3 minute timer 3 times. But maybe there is something else to that quiz :)

As for a quiz interview, I am with hman, I use it to leave.

I was once asked “Why are manhole covers round?” I said “Because manholes are round, and other shape would be silly for the cover” they did not like that answer.

This is the most important sentence:

“The only reliable gauge I’ve found for future programmer success is looking at real code they’ve written”

I actually had a company ask me to take a “test” before they considered hiring me. I answered them by saying, “You want to test my skills? Look at the 50+ sites I’ve coded, then tell me if I need to take a “test” to prove I code.”

You can’t replicate the ability to code in an interview. The best way is to break down the code a person has written. It will tell you mountains more than answering some quiz on the fly in a board room.

I would never hire based on puzzles or quizzes either. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t value in presenting a candidate with a problem they’ve never seen before and working it through with them. When they “know” the answer, you learn almost nothing. It’s when they don’t know the answer that you learn things about them. What’s their approach, willingness to accept guidance, degree of confidence, their intuition, did they find the problem fun, challenging or painful, do they gloss over details, do take the time to understand the problem, will they communicate with you during the process, etc. If you are their partner in solving the problems, you will learn a lot about them. As you say, there are people who are wonderfully talented, a pleasure to work with, and incredibly productive who in the end never arrive a one of the “better” answers to some of the problems. But all of them exhibited plenty of their good attributes during the process.

I’ve done one of these quizzes at the start of my freelancing career. By the end of it I was angry at the company for the unpaid “work” and ultimately did not bother completing the last question.

They really wanted me and begged me to complete it but as others have pointed out the task was so stupid and irrelevant for the job. It revealed more about their terrible business practice than anything. It was a very small company just starting up so it was really unnecessary.

I have been involved in recruiting for the past 16 years and have done both with test and without. I have found that the coding test is one of the better ways to hire a developer. The company can see the candidate’s code and how that person would solve a simple problem. Some tests have come with issues in it already and some a developer builds from scratch. It is a must to try to follow up on that code they wrote so their time doesn’t feel wasted.

Other “brain teasers” get to how a person may think and it isn’t about the right answer as much as how do you deal with a problem you may have never seen before.

I have seen people hired that failed some portion of the interview process and in a lot of cases cost makes a difference in that decision. The higher the price the more expectation to hit the ground running.

The same is true of any qualification. Millions of jobs require college degrees that have no relation to the applicants ability to do the work.

However the degree requirement screens out a disproportionate amount of bad applicants. Sucks to be one of the good applicants that get screened along with them but that’s not going to change the fact that the requirement is a net positive.

Programmers are in short supply so we might guess that extra screens like this are counterproductive but companies like are extremely high prestige and can afford it.

@gh, anybody can use Enumerable, that’s not a good way to know if somebody is a good developer, that doesn’t make the developer think, coding something from scratch is more difficult and requires more skills.