Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday November 02 2018, @12:36AM   Printer-friendly
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?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 02 2018, @01:16AM (3 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday November 02 2018, @01:16AM (#756694) Homepage Journal

    You might settle on a case like that. I wouldn't. And I'd win. And they'd pay my legal costs.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Friday November 02 2018, @01:31AM (2 children)

    by jmorris (4844) on Friday November 02 2018, @01:31AM (#756702)

    You won't be making the decision, the lawyers and insurance company will. And they will settle because they can't afford to play jury roulette or take a case up through multiple levels of appeal. At the moment you might be safe from the DoJ and DoL joining in the fun but if you like in a Blue State your State will probably want in on the action. Big hairball, best to write a check, fire the moron who thought an IQ test in $current_year was still a viable idea and move on. Besides, we all know IQ isn't real anyway, having a properly diverse workforce is the key to productivity and business success. Because anyone who doesn't say they agree is toast.

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 02 2018, @01:47AM

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday November 02 2018, @01:47AM (#756709) Homepage Journal

      See, that's only a valid argument if I make an insurance claim. I wouldn't. I'd hire a lawyer and make sure they were either broke for life or had to file bankruptcy.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @02:30AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @02:30AM (#756726)

      Well, IQ is pseudoscientific junk from the bowels of the social 'sciences'. It correlates with several things, but there has never been good evidence that it is a good all-around indicator of intelligence. It's just assumed that the things it predicts are good measures of intelligence, and that's not scientific. This is the level of quality we can expect from the social 'sciences', which are mostly only good for generating inflammatory clickbait headlines and inconclusive studies.