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from the pi(x)=substr("3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208",1,x) dept.
Recently there was an article discussing how poorly today's Silicon Valley approaches the question of testing their information technology candidates' intelligence.
If you were a hiring manager, how would YOU test YOUR candidate's intelligence?
I was mulling this over recently, when, for unrelated reasons, I found myself researching algorithms to be used in calculating 'pi' (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pi_algorithms).
As it so happens, there are currently 15 known algorithms for pi. At least one of the algorithms can be used to generate arbitrary digits of pi (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey–Borwein–Plouffe_formula), and that might be relevant. (I'm not a mathematician, or a programmer, as such - I'm a sysadmin - but even those who are will likely be surprised to learn that such a thing is possible. For more information, please see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spigot_algorithm.)
And so I would ask my candidate to pretend that he was responsible for designing a library of math functions, and to offer me an opinion on which algorithm should be implemented, in our hypothetical library of routines, to calculate 'pi'.
Some prior experience in programming is required - you have to have written your own functions. No programming languages are required. No coding. Not even pseudo-code! No right answers. No wrong answers. Just pure thought.
You don't need to be a programmer to take this test and succeed. You don't need to do anything on a whiteboard. You just need to be somewhat mathematically inclined ... somewhat literate ... and, a nerd.
A real nerd. Not one of these fake Silicon Valley nerds. You need to have books on your shelves. Not DVDs.
Points for asking what the library will be used for. The value 22/7 might work great for roughing out the roof of a gazebo. Not so good for calculating orbits!
Points for implementing multiple algorithms and letting the user decide for themselves.
No time limit, no pressure ... but I would want to hear back from my candidates, within a day or two, via email.
Compare my test to the puerile tests involving balls, and strings, and calculating 2^64 in your head, in real time, and ask yourself which of these methods REALLY exposes intelligence?
Now, you're in charge.
What would you do?
(Score: 4, Informative) by black6host on Friday November 02 2018, @12:54AM
I ran a programming team, among many other duties, and what I looked for was a familiarity with the tools we were using, or similiar. However, this was not the most important criteria. Many factors went into my hiring decision. Does the candidate have general experience with the type of software we were developing, were they able to learn, were they prima donnas (in which case I didn't hire them) and how was their attitude. I taught many to code well, as opposed to just coding. I also taught my sysadmins (I was Dir. of IT) as well. Some were experienced, others just had a good attitude and a strong desire to do that kind of work with some training under their belt. Anyway, that's a few bits of what went into my hiring decisions. IQ tests were never one of among the tools I used. I would ask, back in the days when we coded in Clipper, what an error 19 was, hehehehe.