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Re: A question about a programming class

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Ben Bacarisse wrote:
> Pavel Lepin <p.lepin@dyninno.com> writes:
>> I've been participating in the hiring initiative of the company I'm
>> currently employed by for a few years now, and we're running a set of
>> problems as a primary means of candidate screening. If a given solution
>> does not compile/run under the highest strictness settings applicable
>> you are likely to get no points for it at all, maybe 1/10 or 2/10 if the
>> algorithm merits it. Failure to follow the problem spec to the letter,
>> including trivial things such as a function name other than specified,
>> normally means the solution will not get more than half points, even if
>> it's otherwise perfect.
> 
> Is this a paper exercise?  I suspect the OP is referring to writing code
> on paper.

No, and there's no time limit. Neither would I apply quite the same
standards to an exercise on paper. I still would take note of any error in
the category "compiler can take care of that for you" and lower the score
accordingly.

> You can select for any attributes you like, but I would not want to
> reject all people who omit a comma in a "paper" program.

I happen to agree in principle, but in my experience extreme attention to
detail is a very important indicator of professional abilities in our
industry.

> My point is that I am not sure I'd want to prioritise such detailed
> knowledge. 

We don't.

> I check everything very carefully (because I am a stickler
> for details) but I don't know -- right now -- what parameters the
> standard C function mbsnrtowcs takes.  (OK I know now because I had to
> look it up.)

I agree, and personally I think testing for that would be outright moronic.

> None taken (I used to be a professor[*]).  Would you assess an English
> graduate by asking him/her:
> 
> Q1 (a) "Then hate me if thou wilt; ...".  Complete the line and make
>        sure to get the punctuation right.
>    (b) What number sonnet is this?

English isn't my native language, and I'm not sure how idiosynratic is
Shakespeare's punctuation by modern standards, nor would I know how much of
a common knowledge such minute details of his corpus of works would be
among the general population. But yes, the approach implied seems
questionable to me. Then again, the skills making a good programmer aren't
something I would expect in a random professional from a different walk of
life.

Pardon my sparse quoting, my news server is complaning I quote too much.
Guess it's time to switch to something else.

-- 
Pavel Lepin

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A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-07 18:57 -0700
  Re: A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-07 19:01 -0700
    Re: A question about a programming class rossum <rossum48@coldmail.com> - 2011-05-08 18:49 +0100
      Re: A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-08 13:25 -0700
        Re: A question about a programming class Robert Spanjaard <spamtrap@arumes.com> - 2011-05-08 23:04 +0200
        Re: A question about a programming class Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2011-05-09 10:28 +1200
          Re: A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-08 16:56 -0700
          Re: A question about a programming class rossum <rossum48@coldmail.com> - 2011-05-09 13:09 +0100
        Re: A question about a programming class Sherm Pendley <sherm.pendley@gmail.com> - 2011-05-09 08:01 -0400
      Re: A question about a programming class Pavel Lepin <p.lepin@dyninno.com> - 2011-05-09 12:17 +0300
        Re: A question about a programming class Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-05-10 12:50 +0100
          Re: A question about a programming class pete <pfiland@mindspring.com> - 2011-05-10 09:32 -0400
            Re: A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-10 10:14 -0700
          Re: A question about a programming class Pavel Lepin <p.lepin@dyninno.com> - 2011-05-10 18:05 +0300
    Re: A question about a programming class Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-05-09 16:34 -0700
  Re: A question about a programming class Sherm Pendley <sherm.pendley@gmail.com> - 2011-05-09 08:00 -0400
    Re: A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-09 10:21 -0700

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