<story><title>In defense of coding interviews</title><url>https://biggestfish.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-coding-interviews</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>d--b</author><text>The dirty secret is that it’s never about the coding skills.&lt;p&gt;It’s about the person’s behavior, the way he&amp;#x2F;she interacts with you. It’s about the person’s culture, tabs vs space, and that kind of things. And it’s mostly about whether you like the person or not.&lt;p&gt;And I think it’s fine. You mainly need to be sure that the person knows what a for loop is, other than that, most people are ok at programming. What really matters is that you can work with that person.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately interviewers who don’t realize this will unconsciously tweak the interview to make it harder for people they don’t like and easier for people they do like. And then they have an “objective” reason to not hire the person: “oh my god, he didn’t know merge sort”.&lt;p&gt;I give all kinds of random questions. And many times I recommend hiring people who bombed it, and many times I recommended bailing on ones who nailed it (overconfidence, poor communication, etc).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>weatherlite</author><text>&amp;gt; It’s about the person’s behavior, the way he&amp;#x2F;she interacts with you. It’s about the person’s culture, tabs vs space, and that kind of things. And it’s mostly about whether you like the person or not&lt;p&gt;Not in FAANG or famous startups it&amp;#x27;s not. You&amp;#x27;re either gonna solve 3-6 medium hard Leetcode questions perfectly or you&amp;#x27;re out. Sure, liking you will help you better not come off as a douche - but you&amp;#x27;re not gonna get an offer without being able to solve (unless it&amp;#x27;s some kind of a diversity hire).</text></comment>
<story><title>In defense of coding interviews</title><url>https://biggestfish.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-coding-interviews</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>d--b</author><text>The dirty secret is that it’s never about the coding skills.&lt;p&gt;It’s about the person’s behavior, the way he&amp;#x2F;she interacts with you. It’s about the person’s culture, tabs vs space, and that kind of things. And it’s mostly about whether you like the person or not.&lt;p&gt;And I think it’s fine. You mainly need to be sure that the person knows what a for loop is, other than that, most people are ok at programming. What really matters is that you can work with that person.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately interviewers who don’t realize this will unconsciously tweak the interview to make it harder for people they don’t like and easier for people they do like. And then they have an “objective” reason to not hire the person: “oh my god, he didn’t know merge sort”.&lt;p&gt;I give all kinds of random questions. And many times I recommend hiring people who bombed it, and many times I recommended bailing on ones who nailed it (overconfidence, poor communication, etc).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>quickthrower2</author><text>It is definitely about the coding skills. It is too easy to bullshit and there is a financial incentive to do so. Also many people with genunine 10 years of experience are not too good at coding.</text></comment>