Need to hire someone

[EternalOptimist]

I just asked someone question 1 in their phone Interview. I didn't bother with question 2.

I'm looking for some intelligent questions and a high level answer with extra points for namedropping a couple of GoF patterns. Is that too much to ask?

I would set the date to 01/??/????, because I always turn over a new leaf at New year

[eek]

I'm looking for some intelligent questions and a high level answer with extra points for namedropping a couple of GoF patterns. Is that too much to ask?

on this forum - probably
In general - most definitely.

[doodab]

I would set the date to 01/??/????, because I always turn over a new leaf at New year

So far you are the leading candidate. Do you know anything about these new fangled computer things?

[EternalOptimist]

So far you are the leading candidate. Do you know anything about these new fangled computer things?

listen mate, I mean boss. I was doing commodity , tree, gofs twenty years ago

I just dont like to talk about it. Knoworramean ?


sugar in that ?

[Spacecadet]

So far you are the leading candidate. Do you know anything about these new fangled computer things?

They seem to work for the teacake business

[mudskipper]

Core Skills:

Java. Web Services. XML. Modern development practices (CI, TDD etc). Good design & problem solving skills.

Technical interview question #1:

You have a tree data structure that you need process, doing something different with each leaf in turn, and collating the results into another parallel tree. How would you go about that?

There is a question #2 for people who do well on #1.

It's a stupid question.

"Doing something different with each leaf in turn". Doing the same something different? What sort of something? Does the something change the structure?
"collating the results" - what does that mean exactly? Why can't you just copy the original structure and change the new one? What's the purpose of the exercise?

[EternalOptimist]

tree walking is easy, I am doing that in my current gig.
the first question I would ask - are the leaves unique ?

second question - is one tree cloned off the other or is it a different species

[stek]

Core Skills:

Java. Web Services. XML. Modern development practices (CI, TDD etc). Good design & problem solving skills.

Technical interview question #1:

You have a tree data structure that you need process, doing something different with each leaf in turn, and collating the results into another parallel tree. How would you go about that?

There is a question #2 for people who do well on #1.

Copy and Paste? Wot iz Q2 then, Boss?

[doodab]

It's a stupid question.

Ironic that you should say that given you're the first person (including those I've actually interviewed) to give anything like the sort of answer I'm hoping for.

"Doing something different with each leaf in turn". Doing the same something different? What sort of something?

Each leaf will result in a different action being taken, the action might be a DB create, update or fetch for example, or a transformation of the data associated with the leaf.

Does the something change the structure?

No, the input tree is invariant.

"collating the results" - what does that mean exactly? Why can't you just copy the original structure and change the new one?

The action associated with each leaf will have a result. The results need to be collated into a tree.

What's the purpose of the exercise?

To see how the candidate attacks the problem. How do they cope with a vague requirement, what sort of questions do they ask, what sort of (possibly incorrect) assumptions do they make without asking, what sort of solutions do they propose, what sort of terminology do they use to describe them, how much prompting do they need, that sort of thing.

[doodab]

tree walking is easy, I am doing that in my current gig.
the first question I would ask - are the leaves unique ?

No.

second question - is one tree cloned off the other or is it a different species

It's a generic Tree<X>, the type parameter may differ between input and output, so may the structure.