> the idea of asking people to write code during an interview what sort of revolutionary
And I think it's a great idea, personally I would never consider working anywhere that hired devs without seeing them write some code. But my problem is with the types of questions asked at many companies, specifically the types that require weeks (or months!) of prepping.
During my last job search one interview that stood out (positively) was a problem around parsing some HTTP headers (it started simple and then had layers of complexity added as I solved each one). It was honestly one of the best questions I've seen in an interview as it requires the candidate to be able to write code and solve a problem but without requiring/expecting the candidate to have prepped beforehand to learn (or brush up on) theoretical stuff far removed from the types of problems we actually solve on a daily bases (evidence of this disconnect is demonstrated by the fact people need to prep).
I think this is a great example of the kind of implicit expectations that always pervade these discussions. I had a similar interview in my last job search, and for me it stood out negatively. At the time I’d never parsed any part of an HTTP response in my professional career, so I made some mistakes that look kinda silly if you know what you’re doing, and it was clear that the interviewer didn’t believe me when I explained that this isn’t a problem that comes up often in my field. I don’t want it to sound like I’m complaining, it’s not a big deal, but the interviews a web developer sees as neat and low-prep are exactly the ones I need to prepare extra for.
And I think it's a great idea, personally I would never consider working anywhere that hired devs without seeing them write some code. But my problem is with the types of questions asked at many companies, specifically the types that require weeks (or months!) of prepping.
During my last job search one interview that stood out (positively) was a problem around parsing some HTTP headers (it started simple and then had layers of complexity added as I solved each one). It was honestly one of the best questions I've seen in an interview as it requires the candidate to be able to write code and solve a problem but without requiring/expecting the candidate to have prepped beforehand to learn (or brush up on) theoretical stuff far removed from the types of problems we actually solve on a daily bases (evidence of this disconnect is demonstrated by the fact people need to prep).