On Thu, Jun 14, 2007 at 11:53:39AM +0200, A. Pagaltzis wrote: > A surprising number of applicants can't actually program, so you > want to weed them out early by asking for direct proof that they > can do so. However, you also want to avoid the testing situation > bias, so I wouldn't to sit them down with a moronic coding test > (like that "FizzBuzz" silliness) during the interview, either.
I find that people who speak poorly of FizzBuzz style tests don't understand the problem they solve, or think they somehow test for competency. FizzBuzz doesn't tell you how good a programmer is. It doesn't tell you what their work ethic is like. It doesn't tell you how well they work with others. It simply tells you that they can solve a tiny programming problem, which an amazingly large number of "programmers" simply can't do. It's not a general tool, it's only used to weed out those people who come from untrustworthy sources, like a recruiter, or craigslist. If a candidate is coming to me through one of those sources it tells me that they don't have the ability to get a job through the normal means (old coworkers, college buddies, etc) and therefore deserve more scrutiny. FizzBuzz is a cheap and easy way to filter those candidates at phone interview time. -Zach
