@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space
I've been in the position to hire software developers multiple times over my career, and I eventually converged on a pretty simple technique. For the technical interview, I'd ask them to bring code they've written and that they understand, and explain it to me. It was intended as a literacy test. The trouble is the interviewer needs to be relatively code literate to understand what they're observing in such an interaction.
I had a technical interview long ago where the interviewer sat me in a room, gave me a printout (!) of code, and asked me to highlight all the issues I could find with it. When I was done we walked through it and I explained my observations. In retrospect that was a literacy test, too. Using a physical printout is a brilliant move.
Low levels of code literacy are acceptable in the industry.My experience isn't representative, but that's something I've observed in industry as well. Code that isn't understood tends to be treated a bit like a cyst. The trouble is that over time the codebase becomes more cyst than functional.
I've been in the position to hire software developers multiple times over my career, and I eventually converged on a pretty simple technique. For the technical interview, I'd ask them to bring code they've written and that they understand, and explain it to me. It was intended as a literacy test. The trouble is the interviewer needs to be relatively code literate to understand what they're observing in such an interaction.
I had a technical interview long ago where the interviewer sat me in a room, gave me a printout (!) of code, and asked me to highlight all the issues I could find with it. When I was done we walked through it and I explained my observations. In retrospect that was a literacy test, too. Using a physical printout is a brilliant move.