On Thu, Sep 06, 2012 at 03:55:36PM +0100, Peter Corlett wrote: > On 5 Sep 2012, at 17:35, Abigail wrote: > [...] > > No. Well, it filters out the wannabees. It doesn't recognize the serious > > coder. If, given the Fibonacci sequence, or a similar recursive formula, > > and your first instinct is to solve it with recursion or iteration, you > > aren't serious. > > Isn't the *point* of this to be a simple test to quickly filter out the > no-hopers? I'd hope it wasn't the *only* test.
Well, I responded to uri who claimed it was the distinguish between wannabees and serious coders. But in my book, being able to calculate the Nth Fibonnaci number doesn't make you a serious coder. It just means you've past one hurdle, and I will have some followup questions. You haven't failed the interview, but you haven't shown that you're a serious coder yet. But if I gave you a recursive formula (Fibonnaci or something similar), and you show that you know how to calculate a generating functions, you do score bonus points. Extra points if you can even do the calculations in a few minutes. Heck, I'd even give some points if you know what generating functions are. Abigail
