Comments on: The Code Sample (The Programmer’s Guide to Getting Hired)

By: johnfx

johnfx — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 21:45:02 +0000

First, this article isn’t really about writing code in an interview. Usually when an interviewer asks for a code sample they do it like a homework assignment. Writing code in an interview is a whole other topic.

Second, I really appreciate your faith in my skills that my bungled code snippet invalidates code samples as a way to evaluate programmers.

Finally, when evaluating a code sample it is important to know the difference between a typo/honest mistake and a fundamental lack of technique and understanding.

As to your point about asking for open source code. You might want to re-read what I was saying. The whole point of this article is advice to the candidate when presented with an open ended request for a code sample. It was a response to a question I saw on StackOverflow from an interviewee who got such a request and didn’t know what to offer.

I do appreciate your feedback through and think it is good policy to embrace your critics. Thanks for commenting!

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 21:22:59 +0000

This is funny actually. You could have spent days writing this article for all we know and you got your own code sample wrong. So what do you expect from an applicant during the stress of a 45 minute interview?

You just disproved your own point. Coding questions during an interview are ludicrous. Ask for some open source code instead.

By: Stephen B

Stephen B — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 22:41:14 +0000

Great Article

Thanks for the help

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By: johnfx

johnfx — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:05:58 +0000

You make an interesting point. However consider the following:

1) For the purposes of the article, I’m assuming you really want the job and aren’t screening the company using the code sample. It’s an interesting idea, but that is a whole other topic.

2) More often than not, you are never going to know what they thought of your code sample when they rule you out. So the learning potential is probably very limited.

more often than not,

By: K

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:50:42 +0000

You mentioned avoiding certain things like Hungarian notation (Apps or Systems?) to avoid getting dinged by someone who zealously follows a different methodology. I wouldn’t necessarily consider that result a bad thing. It may cost me the job, but then it’s costing me a job with a difficult person in a position of influence. Am I worse off? Sometimes, but not always. Even if it doesn’t cost me the job, it gives me information I wouldn’t have had otherwise. If you’re highly confident of your skills and in a strong position, you might consider intentionally putting in a few tripwires like that, as long as they are truly subjective matters of taste.

By: Rob Kinyon

Rob Kinyon — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:16:56 +0000

The best code sample is your OSS work. Every position I’ve been offered in the past 7 years (and I’ve been offered dozens in that time) has mentioned my code on CPAN as a factor for offering me the job. Sometimes, these job offers have been cold offers – I didn’t even know I was being evaluated.

By: johnfx

johnfx — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:53:39 +0000

You make a very valid point, but understand the context of that statement. I have no issue at all with developers using Google as a resource on the job. What I am referring to here is the candidate who throws this out whenever they can’t answer a technical interview question. If I were asking silly interview questions like “How many overloads are there for the .NET RegEx constructor that are available on the compact framework? ” then I’d deserve that kind of response. However, I tend to ask more situational questions and provide a lot of leeway for syntax/method names for any whiteboard code written during interviews.

Perhaps this example explains better what I am talking about:
Interviewer: Performance problems have been reported in your 3-tier web application, describe your general approach for tracking down the source of the performance issues.
Candidate: Uhhhh. I’d Google it!
Interviewer: Google what, exactly?
Candidate: “Performance optimization”
Interviewer: Thanks for your time…

In any event, the “I’d Google it” answer really never satisfies any question that is asked in an interview because it doesn’t tell the interviewer anything about the candidate that differentiates them, unless they have exclusive access to Google or something.