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Interview test for developers

Doug Hellmann doughellmann at home.com
Fri Feb 25 16:46:39 EST 2000 
As one of the developers on a project using Zope and Python, I have been
asked to create a test to be given to applicants for positions in our
group.  We already have such tests for C, C++, Perl, SQL, etc.  The goal
of the tests is not to find out exactly how much a person knows about
the subject.  We just want to verify that if someone claims they know a
language they *know* the language, not *know of* the language.  Tests
are not given to applicants unless they claim knowledge in an area for
which we have a written test.

The other tests have questions such as "what does this statement do,"
"find the syntax error in this statement," "optimize this snippet of
code," "which header file has the definition for string functions like
strcmp," and  "what does this compiler/linker error message mean." 
There are also questions asking the applicant to write very brief
segments of code to do a relatively simple task (for example, the perl
test asks them to write a loop to read all of the lines from stdin and
print out the lines which do not begin with a comment sign).  

These are not meant to be tricky questions, since we don't want it to
take a long time to take the test.  The test is taken with pencil and
paper, so minor syntax errors, etc. are ignored when we grade.  We
typically look over the answers with the applicant and discuss correct
and incorrect answers -- this gives us a little insight into how they
learn from mistakes, etc.  Anyone who knows more than "Python is a
scripting language" should be able to do relatively well on the test I
will be assembling.  Anyone who knows a significant amount of Python
should be able to get the harder questions (such as optimization) --
these are used to identify people who have a higher than average
knowledge in the area.

I'm planning to model the Python test on the others, but do not want to
use exactly the same questions since we typically give each applicant a
couple of tests.  I thought it might be a good idea to ask around to see
if anyone a) had such a test from which I could borrow inspiration or b)
if anyone had suggestions for questions to include in the test.  I will
to post the results back to the group once I have my final draft
written, if there is interest in seeing the test.

Thanks for your input,
Doug
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