Comments for Imran On Tech

Comment on Why logic puzzles make good interview questions by Dr Chrsitopher

Dr Chrsitopher — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:34:29 +0000

Nothing you say will convince me. A test can only measure what its questions measure. So-called ‘logical puzzles’ only measure one or a few specific types of logic, and all of the same certain flavour it seems. Some people do these puzzles for fun but are not computer programmers but will have an advantage due to familiarity. As an educational expert, my experience tells me that a test can only measure as much as it measures. Sometimes it measures less, as some people react negatively to such tests, but it never measures more. If you want to really assess logical thinking, and its various sub-skills, then you have to employ a good psychologist to administer a well tried and tested measure (though never infallible) to get a fairly robust measure. The amateurish tests given by IT companies seem to lack robustness to me. Also, they assess a person’s motivation when put on the spot in an unfamiliar setting. You may think this is important, but I wager the specific scenario given is rarely(!) if ever going to arise in the work place (unles you are writing software for Mensa). To recruit the most suitable candidates you need the most suitable test – to recruit a computer programmer, get them programming a computer! Personally, I get turned-off by companies who recruit by these methods as they come across as rather ‘academic’, air-headed and theoretic and lacking in pragmatism. Computer programming does have a theoretic beauty in its own right, which I am sure we all appreciate, but for me there has to be some connection to reality for me to be engaged.

Comment on Why logic puzzles make good interview questions by Zafar

Zafar — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:48:20 +0000

Comment on Using FizzBuzz to Find Developers who Grok Coding by L.

L. — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:49:21 +0000

Again .. useless checks . luckily you admit to being new … but still .. one should realize 15 = 3*5 and checking again and again and again if indeed it is the case looks a bit like fail

Comment on Using FizzBuzz to Find Developers who Grok Coding by L.

L. — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:45:41 +0000

And this is why the webdev industry is full of noobs who know nothing but HTML and PHP . congratulations

Who the f* cares if you already know about htmlspecialchars or not – it’s mere details compared to not having logic –

Comment on Using FizzBuzz to Find Developers who Grok Coding by L.

L. — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:42:52 +0000

Again .. useless checks, failed logic … Why oh why start by checking the least likely case which is in fact dependant on the next two cases etc. etc. etc. you should NOT be coding.

Comment on Using FizzBuzz to Find Developers who Grok Coding by L.

L. — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:06:58 +0000

I would consider anyone checking a second time out of the race tbh .

IMHO such a major lack of logic can lead to overly complex solutions to simple problems — here you’re only adding one check per loop (some made it double .. they beat you at it :p ) but in another case you will be designing an Mloc solution that runs like a tortoise where a Kloc solution running ok was possible.

The ability of a dev to synthesize and simplify is extremely important for extensibility and maintenance – and very often efficiency.

Comment on Using FizzBuzz to Find Developers who Grok Coding by L.

L. — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:56:13 +0000

Well .. If I had to choose between someone who knows htmlspecialchars by heart, and someone who knows how to code .. it’d be damn quick.

While from a web standpoint (and yes the future is going to be full of webapps – that need a real backend not in PHP though) it looks ridiculous that someone would not realize > was the culprit (see what I did there ) – it’s just webdev knowledge.

So yeah . might look like total fail but that doesn’t mean thing when you’re looking for a real coder and not just a php-drone.

Comment on Using FizzBuzz to Find Developers who Grok Coding by L.

L. — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:38:49 +0000

Well .. you’re wrong like so many before you – and it was pointed out before you answered.

Should the variable not be a numeric type, you’d require double conversions … all that to avoid a third variable when you’re obviously not thinking much further than 4 bit integers..

I would be surprised if creating a third variable in registers was slower than doing three basic arithmetic ops … – in a general case of course, not counting corner cases like register is exactly 100% full with a and b or something -

Comment on Using FizzBuzz to Find Developers who Grok Coding by L.

L. — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:25:22 +0000

Aside from your remarks (i.e. no new line is making it a bit strange), checking again for the mod is a crime in itself. you already know if it matches mod3 or mod5, so just use that knowledge instead of asking for another expensive (double) op.

Comment on Using FizzBuzz to Find Developers who Grok Coding by L.

L. — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:16:41 +0000

not reusable because not inside a class ?? god bless brainwashing.

Performance of % and if statement is extremely relevant because there will be no IO for this exercise.