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Comment by MrLeftHand | Hacker News Reader

A solution is a solution. Proving that you can search for a solution and use it is a positive thing. There are loads of people who can't do even that. It wasn't like copy-paste. You still have to understand how to write the code that uses the API, you still have to get the input from the console and write the output to it.

And if I follow your trail of thought, then I hope you're not using stackoverflow when you do your job, because that means you are relying on others to solve a problem for you. Does your boss know about this?

I wonder how many times you copy-pasted anything.

And just for your information I still provided a second solution for them after they frown back the first one.

But hey, sorry if I think solving a problem doesn't mean I have to write everything from scratch.

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You're in an interview, you know they're looking for signals to your programming ability. You should offer them the maximally-informative signal without having to be prodded. Sure, knowing to search for an existing solution first is an asset, but that should be more-or-less a given. If you didn't want to assume it was a given you could have just mentioned that in the real world you would simply google for an API or an existing method as you were coding up the solution to their question. It just seems counter to the entire process of interviewing to expect essentially an API call to be acceptable in that context, so your apparent expectation that it would be doesn't seem reasonable at all.

To be honest this was like 4 years ago. I thought it was a good thing to show that I can get things done in way it costs less effort and time.

I was wrong, I moved on, so did they.

If I would have a similar test today I wouldn't go down the same route, because I know what they would expect.

Maybe it was my sysadmin past talking back then. Trying to find a good existing solution for the problem.

Interviewing is about putting on the dance. Juggle some balls on a unicycle etc. It's a rite of passage to what may be a cool job but you have to jump through the hoops like a dolphin.

That sounds pretty cool. I hope at the end they wont try to feed me with raw fish.

And there is the part 'may be a cool job'. Sometimes that part is a lie.

Yes come to us and you will be working with the newest tech and learn new things...

Oh did we forgot to mention we use CVS, Java 1.6 and Expoler 8? You want to use something else? No can't do sweety.

I am over using the newest tech. Just want to work on interesting problems. JS fatigue etc. I'm glad I don't do web dev anymore!

Me to supposed mechanic: "Can you repair my car?"

Mechanic: gets out the yellow pages and calls a real mechanic.

Me: ok I'll hire that guy you just called

They're not hiring someone to search. They're hiring someone to code. You proved you could search but not that you could code

Me to supposed mechanic: "Can you fix my car?"

Mechanic: "Yes, of course!" - he gets up and collects loads of bits and pieces, metal bars and stuff, then starts to hammer away to create a car part.

Me: "What the hell are you doing?"

Mechanic: "I'm building the part for your car."

Me: "Don't you have a spare or something?"

Mechanic: "Well I don't, but there are spares I could order."

Me: "Then do it man, order one."

Mechanic: "Nah, I like to build everything by myself."

Anyway, using an API doesn't mean you don't have to code.

I was wrong, I learned, next time will be different.

I'm sure I personally have failed programming tests by doing too much (or not enough) "enterprise" programming in particular stuff that requires things like parsing a CSV file. Do you use a third party library, roll your own, just use string.split(",")? All three are good responses, personally unless the sample data has embedded quotes I've just added comments saying that I'd use a particular library[1] for this normally but I've used string.split as a quick and dirty hack.

At work we've stopped doing take away tests in part for just this reason. We do have a small pair programming test (fix some SOLID code smells in a small 10 line program) and we also don't expect folks to fix all of the problems within that code.

As a pair programming exercise you can almost walk someone through the first problem with the code (there are two big problems[2] plus four minor issues that you could find) and also you can guide the scale of the response they have to the issues (For example I might prompt them and say if you use mocking frameworks in your current job lets use that and you can talk me through how to use it)

We've had pretty good success with this and does seem to avoid some of talks a good talk but can't do developers.

[1] Getting the library onto the interviewers machine might be a really big issue their firewall might block access / maybe I can't send binaries to you due to your AV

[2] Since it's only 10 lines of code the issues are the sort of thing in the "real" world you might ignore but repeated across a code base would be a problem.

What if that shop builds race cars and trophy trucks? Are you okay with the part being replaced being of higher quality and finish than the original? What about some advanced alloy that would not have been financially do-able for a manufacturer to use?

When hiring someone with "fabrication skills" into a machine shop, you certainly don't expect them to order a part during the interview when you just asked them to make a part on the lathe. Which position are you interviewing for, machinist or administrator/purchasing?

I'm going to hazard a guess that you don't have any manufacturing experience due to shibboleths: you said "fabrication" but you meant turning, not sheet-metal bending. Did I guess right?

This is a common interview tactic: trying to figure out if someone belongs to a group known to have particular skills by their choice of words or similar.

Turning parts on a lathe (and machining/milling) fit in my definition of "fabrication skills". (Mechanical engineer and a few hundred hours in the machine shop, but not a full-time machinist by any means.)

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